Kingdom Hearts: Circle of Infinity
by Nanashi The Silver Fox
Summary: The Disney Multiverse is only one of many! When the Anime Multiverses are set to destruction by a mysterious foe, it's up to two inexperienced city boys who lost their own planet to try and protect it! Anime worlds galore! R&R!
1. Prologue

A/N: Yes, another fanfic, this one (if you hadn't noticed, it's Kingdom Hearts). Anyway, original characters galore, but I promise I'll stay out of the Mary-Sue zone as much as I can! Besides, you can have fun with anime/manga worlds even if you don't like my characters! Well, I normally don't start fics like this, but KH is a game that HAS to have a song if you ask me, and I want to keep the archetype of KH, at least all the things I can having it be a novel instead of a manga or game, so the theme is Revolve by the Japanese band UVERworld which you can listen to on Youtube…somewhere… I posted the Japanese lyrics in sections and at the bottom is the whole song in English. Well, enjoy!

**Kingdom Hearts: Circle of Infinity**

_Prologue: Double Dive_

_Kore ga saigo ja nai yo to iikikase  
Kizu tsuku koto wo osoreteta  
Wakatteta kimi no koto_

_Hitori kodoku wo daite ita konna yoru wa  
Kimi no koe wo tayori ni wow_

_Close by  
Kimi no smile, call, once again  
Ano hi mitaku dakishimetai yo  
Mi ni itsuka ikou futari de aruita  
Machi no ne hikari wo  
Towa ni itai kedo soba ni  
Tarizu kotoba ni dekizu shimai no koto_

_Senaka awase ni tatte sagashiau mitai na  
Kanashii futari data_

_Woo you're everything  
Wasurerarenakute  
Konna ni mo_

_Close by  
Kimi no smile, call, once again  
Itai kurai dakishimetai yo  
Atarashii te erande shimaenai  
Kimi shika iranai yo  
Towa ni tsunaideru hikari  
Mieru aida ni takin'it to me once again_

_Close by _

_Kimi no smile, call, once again_

_Ano hi mitaku dakishimetai yo  
Mi ni itsuka ikou futari de aruita  
Machi no ne hikari wo_

_Te ni shitai yume wo tsukamu daishou ni  
Kimi no koto ushinattanda  
Omoide box shimaikomenai kono mama_

_Towa ni itai kedo soba ni  
Tarizu kotoba ni dekizu  
Toki wa satte yuku dake_

_Towa ni itai kedo soba ni  
Tarizu kotoba ni dekizu shimai no koto

* * *

Two. Two boys of great importance, though they were little know, slept that night each one different in appearance and heart, but connected indefinitely… So it began…_

* * *

It felt like he was falling forever, sifting through the darkness with his body. His black hair and green eyes were the only things that discerned him from the mass of darkness, his skin was overshadowed easily. His fall went unnoticed by all, even the boy himself, it seemed, and until he landed, he didn't move a muscle despite the large fall.

'Whoa, where am I?"' the boy pondered, looking around. He had just fallen out of the sky, quite literally, after all.

"So much to do, so little time... Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?" a mysterious voice echoed from the darkness around him. The boy looked around. He then shrugged the voice off, and stepped forward with little trouble to meet a trio of platforms with three items on them: a sword, a shield, and a staff. They all had blades, the sword's where it should be expected, the shield's coming out from the center, and the staff's at the end. The boy walked up and looked at them each in turn, to hear the voice say:

"If you give it form... It will give you strength. Choose well."

The boy took up the shield first, and heard it again , "The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. And shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?". He shook his head, setting the shield back, then walked past to the Sword to hear the voice speak: "The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword

of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?" He shook his head again, and went to the last platform which held the staff. The voice echoed again "The power of the Mage. Wisdom. A staff of magic and wonder . Is this the power you seek?" the boy closed his eyes, then reopened them and grasped the sword. He looked at it for a moment, only to see it disappear. He blinked, then saw that it's platform had dispersed as well.

The voice continued "Now what will you give up in exchange?" it querried. This time the boy had an easy choice, he walked over to the staff and grasped it for a bit, then watched as it disappeared into thin air the same as his sword.

"You've gained the power to fight," the voice echoed. The boy suddenly felt the sword in his hand again, and looked at it for only a second before slashing the air in front of him without reason, he just felt like doing so. The darkness quivered and the voice continued, "All right! You've got it! Use this power to protect yourself and others." As it spoke, mysterious creatures, small and made of complete darkness, at least judging by their appearance, came from the depths of the surrounding darkness

"There will be times when you have to fight, keep your light burning strong!" the presence of the voice disappeared and the boy faced forward, looking at the beasts he took a ready to fight stance, his left hand balled into a fist and his right clutching the Keyblade and holding it off to his right, the blade facing away from him. The shadows drew in, making a perfect circle, they had yellow eyes that glowed ferociously with what appeared as hunger. They drew closer and closer until… One leapt at him, with an incredible speed.

The boy ducked beneath it a bit, then brought his blade up as it was passing directly overhead to slash it into pieces of wispy darkness. He then looked at the others, which had started moving as soon as he'd finished with one. Two came from the left; one beneath him, one leaping like the previous one. The boy performed his own leap, slashing the aerial one in half with an upper slash from midair, then flipping around in the air to look beneath him, he slashed the one crawling below him into dust as well. He hit the floor, but rolled with the impact and wasn't harmed severely. He then stood up twirled the sword by its hilt. It felt light in his hand, he realized.

"Not long enough…Your time has come…" the voice echoed again, and suddenly, as though he were watching a movie and it had just been paused, the shadows stopped. The boy looked around in shock. He was the only thing moving now. A glow of light signaled his eyes to dart towards the left, where a large, beautifully adorned door, pure white with intricate designs and patterns for decoration, sat. He walked up to it, grasped the handles, and pulled. It didn't open. Somehow, however, he'd been expecting that.

'It's coming…"' he thought. He surveyed the room, apprehensive. Then, without warning, a large black shadow appeared beneath, blotting out the image on the platform. He twisted around in shock as he saw the shadow raise itself from the ground and begin to form a huge entity the likes of which he'd never seen before.

It was a hulking creature, at least as tall as a two story house. It had spikes coming from it's shoulders and its eyes were a deep, angry, blood red. It had no mouth, yet seemed to be growling. Its arms were massive hulks of shadowy muscle that pulsed with some odd energy, its head was also lined with spikes as though that was its hair. The boy didn't know how he knew it, but he knew this creature…It was like a fairy tale beast he'd grown up knowing, but had forgotten when he got older. The beast's name came to him now, regardless of whether it was true or not, he was facing: **NullVoid. **

He backed away, unsure of why he was afraid. 'I can't die, can I? Is this…Dream…world?"' his thoughts became scrambled in looking at the hulking beast, he backed away more, until he came to the edge of the platform.

"Your time is now, don't run from the darkness…Don't run from non-existence." The voice had emotion now, a very odd emotion he couldn't pinpoint, but it gave the boy strength, and he knew what he had to do. He raised the sword up, and charged forward with speed he'd never had before. The beast seemed to roar, then it raised a hand, and shot six tree sized spikes from the depths of the darkness that was its palm. The boy paused for only a second, not for shock, but to time his movements…

'Now!"' the boy leapt on one of the black spears, not knowing how darkness could support him, but from there he leapt off and slashed at the hand. NullVoid didn't seem to take any notice, he simply used his other hand to swat the boy away, sending him barreling back onto the platform. He skidded to a halt right at the edge, and looked up with tears of pain in his eyes. But then, there was something else: Belief. He knew he could do it now, though he didn't know why after he'd just been effectively pawned. But he rose, despite his body's pain, and charged again to meet a total of 30 tree trunk sized black spikes, which had come from NullVoid's hands, feet, and head. He leapt onto one, slashed another two before they hit, and then leapt from the one he was standing on, this time aiming higher on NullVoid. This time, he went for a headshot. NullVoid seemed to sense this, and acknowledged it as a threat, it used its hands to try and catch him, but the boy did a flip in midair and landed on the beasts hands which where now clenched in a squeezing position on nothing but themselves.

NullVoid wasn't deterred, he released his grasp and the boy would have fallen had he not leapt at the last possible second, heading again for NullVoid's head. He brought his sword back as far as possible on his left side so he could make a clean sweep through the beast's head, and then released slicing with all his force just as NullVoid's hands had went at him again. SMASH! The hand had hit him this time, but not before his blade had sliced through NullVoid's throat. The hands went limp, NullVoid seemed to be trying to let out a cry or groan, as he released the boy and fell back, over the edge of the platform, the sword, which had remained in his neck, went with him into the deep abyss of darkness. The boy hit the platform hard, and tried to get up, but now that the sword was gone, for whatever reason, he felt weak. He looked up, his nose bleeding and his body aching all over, and saw the door emnate a stronger light.

"Your time was short, but your power is great," the voice began, the boy couldn't reply from the pain. "don't be afraid, the door will open soon," the voice wouldn't cease, no matter how much the boy wished it would. "You are the one who will open it. You will open the door. Never forget…" the voice sounded like it would disappear soon, "you hold the mightiest weapon of all." The boy heard her as though from far off this time, and, with all his strength gone, he closed his eyes, just wanting to rest… The ground was shaking. He peeked open an eye and turned on his side to see the platform leaning towards the darkness.

'I…lost?"' the boy thought, looking at the darkness before him. The platform tilted more and more, he wouldn't be able to stay there any longer…He should move. But it was already too late, with one final sentence from the voice, the platform tilted over into the darkness, the boy closed his eyes and wondered exactly what the voice meant by it…the words: "The Light of Darkness will guide you…."

* * *

The night would soon end, and two boys, who had shared almost the exact same dream, would awaken to a world that was in its final days, and wouldn't remember the dream at all. In the sky, a star twinkled, then disappeared.

* * *

A/N: Well, that's me prologue! I hoped you all liked my editing and all that of the Dive. And I tried to find what the voice really says upon the staff, but no one had it and I no longer have a working copy of Kingdom Hearts. I hope it sounded real enough! Anyway read and review! Or don't and say you did…In a review! Oh, and as promised, the English Lyrics (by the by, this is a favorite song of mine, though I like Shamrock more…).

_I knew  
You were telling yourself it wasn't over  
Because you were afraid of being hurt_

_On nights like that night I spent alone, with only my loneliness to hold  
I let your voice guide me, wow _

_Close by, your smile, call, once again  
I want to hold you like I did that day  
Someday I'll go and see the lights  
On the streets I walked through  
I want to be by your side forever  
But it wasn't enough, I couldn't find the words to say, and now it's over_

_We were sad, as if we were trying to look for each other  
With our backs to each other_

_Woo you're everything  
I can't forget you  
You're so unforgettable_

_Close by  
Your smile, call, once again  
I want to hold you so badly it hurts  
I can't choose a new hand to hold  
All I need is you  
Takin' it to me once again  
While I can still see the lights that are entwined forever_

_Close by  
Your smile, call, once again  
I want to hold you like I did that day  
Someday I'll go and see the lights  
On the streets I walked through _

_When I lost you  
I lost my dreams and any compensation  
Unable to put you in my box of memories_

_I want to be by your side forever  
But it's enough, I can't find the words to say  
And time keeps passing by_

_I want to be by your side forever  
But it wasn't enough, I couldn't find the words to say, and now it's over_


	2. City Boys

**Kingdom Hearts: Circle of Infinity**

_Chapter 1: City Boys_

The stars would always shine brightly around the city. Perhaps it was because they felt honored that they would bath the large, industrious; skyscraper strewn lands deemed "Starlight City'. They shone especially bright the night after the mysterious and forgotten dreams.

"It is really pretty, you can't deny that, Ryou." A soft voice, one that seemed awed, broke the night's silence with the comment. Lying on the northern hills of the city with relaxed smiles on their faces were two boys that looked no older than 15. Truth of the matter was, they _weren't_ older than 15.

The one that hadn't spoken twisted over to look at the boy who had addressed him. "Yeah, you're right, it is pretty nice," he started.

"Then why don't you just ask her out, and bring her here!" the other boy was clearly annoyed at his friend.

Ryou, the second boy to talk, frowned. "Man Saito, you're really starting to sound like my dad," at this Saito, the other boy, sat bolt upright. "he's always trying to get me to hook up with any girl that isn't missing a body part…" Ryou finished, sounding a bit disgusted towards the end.

"Well I'm not like _that!_" Saito said indignantly. "I just think, you know," he made a motion with his hands, "you can't hide your feelings forever, and it'd be better to have things play out on your turf. Even if you get rejected, at least you're the one that told her you liked her, and not some eavesdropping twerp." Saito said matter of factly. Ryou raised his eyebrows.

"Eavesdropping twerp? That's an apt comparison to someone we know, isn't it?" Ryou asked. Saito smiled a bit sheepishly.

"Yeah, my bro, but I can't help complaining, he's always taking my stuff!" Saito grunted in remembered annoyance. Ryou's emerald green eyes suddenly twinkled and he stood up with a smile coming to his face.

"Well, I think this wraps up another great therapy session….Race you back home!" He yelled suddenly and Saito had only a split second to peel himself from the ground as his best friend dashed off into the starlit woods.

* * *

"Wait, that's no fair-" Saito began, but he realized his remarks were to fall on deaf ears, so he just shook his head and dashed after Ryou with a smile spreading across his face far quicker than he was running. 

This was how days often ended up in the peaceful, though busy city Ryouji Shinjuru and Saitoshi Iwamoto lived in. Ryouji (Ryou for short) was a 5'6" rather talkative boy. Enthusiastic about animals and always looking forward to Science classes to actually learn. His black hair fell a bit past his shoulders as he'd been most recently letting it grow out. He was pretty adept at Martial arts and swordplay, and he and Saito practiced with each other more than occasionally. Thus far their record was 723-718 in favor of himself. His adoptive parents (his true parents he'd never known past a few vague remembrances of oddly shaped glasses and cigarettes) were pretty well off, but they never flaunted their money, mostly because they didn't have time as they were both in prestigious businesses that Ryou doubted he'd ever quite understand. As far as Ryou was concerned, having fun was the main purpose of life. That and helping other people have fun.

This philosophy was in constant distress as his best friend was a bit of a pessimist. Saito "Saitoshi" Iwamoto also came from a rather wealthy family. The only difference was he was missing a mother. Though his father seemed to be stable enough on the outside, the loss of his wife seemed to have affected him quite a deal and so outside of work and bring in the green, he wasn't apt to do much more to help Saito.

Saito didn't press his father to help him, however, and usually he spent much of his time drawing up ideas for new costumes. Or actually making them, as he fancied himself a seamstress. The costumes were used for all sorts of things, but mostly he and Ryou fooled around while wearing them, pretending they were warriors fighting against evil. His little brother, who was almost 12 now, frequently pestered Saito for fun, especially when he was in the midst of drawing up a new costume.

Together the two were quite well known for their different costumes and intricately self designed clothing when a festival or celebration would come up. Though Saito was the only one of them who could actually make the proposed costume, Ryou's ingenuity when it came to designing made them a hard team to beat in competitions…and it got them lots of candy on Halloween.

As a result of this, it was with great joy that Ryou finished first in their midnight race. As he was catching his breath, Saito smugly stole upstairs with a whisper that he'd be back down in a second with a surprise. 'Man, I can't wait to see what kind of suit he made out now!"' the black haired boy thought. He didn't have to wait long, as a few minutes later, the grey eyed Saitoshi stepped outside again, and gave Ryou a large brown box. "Whoa! This is heavy!" Ryou said, barely being able to hold it in his weakened state. Saito frowned.

"You shouldn't have quit Kendo, you're getting out of shape." He jabbed. Ryou rolled his eyes but shifted the box around and stood up straight.

"So…What's in it?" he asked, feigning nonchalance.

Saito wasn't fooled. "I bet you'd like to know. Unfortunately, I'm forbidding you to open it till Friday- Festival Day." He said. Ryou smirked at that.

The following Friday would be the day for a rather large Festival in which the people of the Starlight City would celebrate the beautiful lives they had cultivated thanks to the Gods that each one of the trillions of stars represented. Ryou wasn't religious enough to care about that, he just loved to dress up, and have fun. This was true for most of the younger kids as well, and it was mostly them that enjoyed it, but even if he and Saito were the only ones to have fun with costumes over the age of 10, he thought he'd still have a nice time.

"Alright, I suppose I can wait," Ryou decided finally with an exaggerated sigh as though this was the most unfair thing in the world. He then readjusted his face to a smile and reached out his hand while curling it into a fist. "See ya tomorrow Sai!" Saito smirked back punched fists with his friend, then closed the door as Ryou turned away to walk to his own house with the large brown box.

* * *

"Because it's stupid, that's why!" The exclamation broke through the stale air like a bullet. 

It was Friday, the morning of the Festivities, and Saito was trying to concentrate in the lunchroom full of talkative people. The most recent discussion, to which the previous exclamation was made, was on the festival that would be happening that night and of why majority of those in his school would or wouldn't go.

'Damn, this is getting me nowhere,"' Saito thought to himself, sighing and placing his pencil into its box. He was trying to get the finishing touches added to his costume for tonight, first on paper, and then he'd go home and (hurriedly) prepare it fully to wear. Unfortunately, he found he couldn't focus enough to draw a squiggly line with the exclamations and laughter and all around noisiness of the table. 'Ah well, at least I don't have to worry about Ryou's costume this year… Hm, that reminds me, I wonder what he made up…"' Saito continued to ponder, this time on Ryou and his self made costume, which he proclaimed would be better than all of Saito's combined. That was two months ago, and Saito hadn't heard anything on it as of yet. He looked up and over at Ryou, who was muttering to himself in the lunch line.

'What's he mutter…"' Saito began to think, but his thoughts dropped as he saw, standing about two feet in front of Ryou, Sayu Minakawa, the girl he and Ryou had been discussing the night prior. 'Crap! He's going to ask her!"' Saito thought with a gulp of fear. 'Good luck man!"'

Ryou looked at the beautiful girl in front of him; her hair was long and silky looking, a rather light blond in color. He skin perfectly tanned, and as she smiled a bit while talking to her friend, he saw her perfect teeth and exactly how beautiful her lips were…. He shook his head, trying not to be thrown off of his resolve by her beauty. 'Come on, Ryou, just ask her to the festival already!"' he thought with a twitch. He didn't move… 'Damnit, why is this so hard!"' he almost felt like crying and squeezed his eyes shut, then took a deep breath. 'Okay, just focus…concentrate….and….DO IT!"' he mentally exclaimed. He took a deep breath, opened his Emerald green eyes, and stepped forward a little bit further so he would be right next to her…

"Sayu!" He said. He stood up straight as possible, and flexed his muscle (though you couldn't tell) and looked at her as she slowly turned around and appraised him with her brilliantly blue eyes.

"_Yes_!" she asked, clearly annoyed. Her brilliant blue eyes were now shining… with annoyance and, perhaps if one looked deep enough they'd even see hatred. That was when Ryou mentally pressed his abort button. He reached into his pocket, as though actually trying to find an 'abort' button, and grasped a mechanical pencil he'd pocketed earlier upon leaving class for lunch, and quickly tossed it at their feet. Ryou looked down in feigned surprise. "Oh, you dropped your pencil! I'll get it!" he went to do just that…Unfortunately, it was in the same moment that Sayu looked down to see it, and he ended up ramming his head against hers.

"OW!" Sayu yelled everyone behind and ahead of them in the line laughed. Ryou rubbed his own head and saw Sayu picking up the pencil and glaring at him. "This isn't even my pencil you idiot!" she yelled. Ryou mouthed at her wordlessly, and she tossed the piece of plastic at him, but he didn't feel it hit as he saw her stand up and glare down at him. "Now please, before you embarrass yourself, _get lost_!" she yelled. Ryou looked up dumbfounded and Sayu tossed her hands into the air and stalked out of the line muttering about the likelihood of her getting brain damage. Ryou slowly peeled himself up from the floor, his head bowed, and walked away towards the exit to be met by Saito.

"…..Nice…." Saito said, suppressing a laugh. Ryou looked at him and sighed.

"I hate my life…"

* * *

A cold wind brushed through the darkening city. It seemed to sweep the light away as it went, making Ryou shiver as he walked home. It was after the disastrous day at school and he was trying to get home hurriedly to occupy his mind with something other than his utter failure at getting a relationship with Sayu started. 

The black haired boy looked up at the sky, studying it for signs of rain, but the clouds didn't tell him much. 'I'm beginning to think I should have come with Saito….Oh well, I'll take a shortcut!" Ryouji said cheerfully to no one, and he turned towards the alleyways to the left of his chosen street.

Where before the darkening sky and cold winds were evident to him, Ryou find that going through the brick pathways and areas of the back alleys served to dissuade the bitterness of that night. "Hope it's not like this for the festival though," he began to speak to himself again, looking around absentmindedly and not paying attention to the wall that was about four feet in front of him, "tents won't help keep warm that mu-" Ryou cut off, and blinked, looking around. "What the hell!" he asked the air. He then looked back and saw the alley he'd come from. 'There wasn't a hole in this building, was there?"'

"Do not worry," a voice behind him began, "This world is not long for the Universe, much less the Infiniverse…You'll soon find comfort in the darkness." Ryou twirled around. There, standing directly behind him was a man in a black cloak, a hood on the article of clothing keeping his face covered. His voice was deep and mellow, he sounded completely and utterly unconcerned, almost to the bored point.

"Wh-who are you!" Ryou asked, having never seen a man like this before.

The man stood still, Ryou figured he was sizing him up by the look he was given from the mysterious man. "You have it, don't you?" he asked. Ryou blinked, and looked on his own form while still keeping a wary eye on the man.

"Have what?"

"Of course, you wouldn't realize. Go into the light, where you belong," the man said, turning around and beginning to walk away. Ryou remained tense; wondering where he was going with all the darkness behind him, he didn't think he'd be able to see anything, "at least," the man spoke again, "until the darkness claims you." He finished, walking into the deep darkness where Ryou could no longer see him. Ryou blinked.

"Weird." He said. He turned around to meet the alleyway again, and it was evident now that he was standing in the middle of it. "Wha-" he blinked and twirled around a few more times, wondering where the hole in the wall he'd walked through had gone, and why he was suddenly standing outside. DING-DONG DING-DONG! The arrival bell, which would signal from the large astronomy tower in the middle of the city when someone arrived to the festival, gave two impossible to miss rings. Ryou shook off his questions and dashed down the alleyway, wanting to get to his place and get his costume as soon as possible so he wouldn't miss the fair.

* * *

Saito, meanwhile, had already arrived at home (being that his dad picked him up) and was just rearranging his stuff for the festival, making sure every thing he needed for a costume (or two) was there. "Well…That's that…" he said, although he felt as though he was missing something…. 'To be honest, this feeling won't go away, I don't know why, but the past few days it's like I'm both overlooking something obvious, and forgetting to bring something with me…No…That's not right, it's like I forget I have it with me…"' Saito sighed and shook the thought off. 'Well, better brush my teeth before I go, I'll be way to sleepy by the time we get back!"' he thought instead. He dashed towards the bathroom…And tripped halfway there… 

"OW! TOYA! Don't leave your toys everyw-" Saito cut himself off, as directly before him stood a black clothed man.

"Follow the darkness. It won't lead you wrong." The man said simply. Saito's eyes went wide. But before he could ponder on what he was seeing, he blinked, and the man was gone.

"Wha-" he began, but then his little brother, Toya, came crashing into the room. A few moments later, the two siblings were involved in a heated argument which drove the mysterious disappearing man from Saito's preoccupied mind.

* * *

Billions of light years away, in a little known, though vast, world, there was an amalgam of hustling and bustling and interesting looking individuals moving and doing their own daily thing. However, one of these found himself dashing madly through the hallways of a large, old England styled, white castle. The castle itself looked no shorter than 100 stories high, it's turrets and towers only slightly smaller. It seemed to be made of an odd type of cement block that was multicolored, but only if you looked closely could you discern anything other than white or silver. Their texture was smooth and metallic, though they weren't cool to the touch. Around the castle sat many a hill and rocky structures, behind it sat a beautiful, free flowing waterfall twice the size of Niagara and with much purer in appearance, water. Inside the castle had too many rooms to count, but the one of most importance was the Central Throne room, where there was now an agitated looking white gowned woman with a beautiful crown on her head pacing up and down and biting her nails. It was this room that the dashing man came to. 

As for the man, he appeared sixteen with blue eyes and sandy blond hair, behind his back were sheathed two daggers which crossed each other a bit after the hilt in different holsters. Also behind him was a 3 and a half ft. long brown tail which resembled a rope. He burst through the room with enough force to knock the doors off their hinges. Being that the doors were a dozen times his size, that was considerably impressive.

The woman pacing gave a start, but seemed to realize who it was as she spoke informally and almost rushed. "Have you found him, Zidane!" she asked.

Zidane shook his head, breathing a bit hard. "Shadow couldn't find him either…I think…He must have left…But maybe he's…" Zidane staggered through the sentence, looking as though he didn't want to say it. The woman, apparently the queen of the place, shook her head, her blue eyes wide with apprehension and anxiety.

"No, don't even _think_ like that, he's perfectly alright I'm sure!" she said. Zidane gulped, then stepped forward, pulling something from his pocket.

"Only you can know for sure, your highness…King Grifeth used a spell to make sure of that." He said, walking almost directly up to her, and setting down the item he'd just withdrawn from his pocket: a letter. The queen's eyes widened and she snatched it up hurriedly, slashing it open and removing the letter, which she read hurriedly.

She sighed after a few seconds, a sigh of relief. "He's alright…Well, when he wrote this he was…" she looked a bit worried after saying the last part, but it was nothing compared to her previous appearance. "Here, you read." She said. Zidane took the letter, and read:

_Dear Gema,_

_Concerning the past few days, I'm sure you've noticed I've been rather distant. The reason for this _

_Attitude wasn't because of any of my feelings for you wavering, but because I realized that a great _

_Evil is soon to rise. Perhaps too great for even me, the King of Fantasy Falls, but if there is to be an_

_Evil such as that, I won't just let it take our lives from us! So, while I might die, I know that I must destroy _

_This evil. What it is, I cannot say. What I can say is that it's power is great, and it's will is that of the _

_Darkest beings I've faced, or maybe even worse. It has slowly been dismantling the stars, as I soon realized_

_And a conversation with another great and noble King, one from another Universe- No, another _Multiverse

_who wields an odd Weapon (though it _is_ similar to mine) helped me to figure out how much of a threat it _

_would be to our World. I may not succeed, as this noble King didn't have all the details and speculated on _

_a great deal Of things, but I will try my very hardest to make sure no force as dark as this touches our _

_world!_

_To my wife with Love_

Zidane finished. He blinked and looked up at Gema, the queen. "But, your majesty…Why would you allow me to read such a personal letter!" Zidane queried.

Gema closed her cerulean blue eyes. "This concerns us all, which I believe my husband forgets….Which is exactly why, you see, I want _you_ to find him." She finished. Zidane blinked, letting that sink in.

"WHAT! QUE! WAS! QU'EST!" he asked in a variety of languages. Gema smiled.

"That's right, I want you to find King Grifeth! And when you do…Give him a smack for me!" Gema said a bit too sadistically. Zidane felt as though he would cry.

"Please don't make me!" he said with tears welling up in his eyes. Suddenly, a black flash went between them, making them both blink. They followed its path and their eyes settled upon what could be called nothing less than a Ninja, with the stereotypical black on and all.

"I couldn't find him, even looking a second time…Did I miss something?" the Ninja asked.

Gema smiled pleasantly. "Shadow, you've just been recruited! Zidane will inform you on your way to the Gundam!" she waved at them and walked from her own throne room. Shadow, the Ninja, looked at Zidane, who had tears streaming down his face.

"…I hate my life…"

* * *

_And so the darkness gathered…._

_

* * *

_**A/N: **Alright, another chapter up and going, you may now begin formulating opinions! Remember to review, and don't hold back, I even welcome flames…Just don't expect an overly nice response if you flame…Anyway, the next chapter will get more action and really begin the story, this was mainly character intro (which I usually spend three-four chapters on, in truth, but what can I say, I'm impatient!). Oh, and for future reference, this story takes place along side Kingdom Hearts 1's story, the prologue took place at around the time Sora's awakening, to be exact. Thanks for the previous reviews (Here's looking at you, Rex and Link130491) and have a nice night...or day, depending!


	3. End of the Shining City

_Chapter 2: End of the Shining City_

"….Sounds complicated." Shadow, the black clad Ninja of Fantasy Falls, enunciated. It was only ten minutes after he and Zidane had been appointed with the mission of finding King Grifeth of Fantasy Falls, and Zidane had explained everything he'd read in the letter left by the King. They had quickly found themselves in the looping building of the Gundam Storage Facility, where all the Mobile Suits used for fighting and getting around in space were kept safe and sound, sometimes in transportation shuttle, sometimes outside of one. They were waiting for a requested pilot to show up…

"Damn it Kira!" Zidane had opened his mouth to speak, but a bitter swear word had stopped his comment. He and Shadow looked around the dusty, and (what they previously thought was) empty warehouse, specifically towards a huge, black, almost humanoid machination that had a rifle in its right hand and the wings of a jet magnified many times to satisfy its 16.9 meter height sticking out from behind. The ends of the wings and a bit of its shoulder area were grey colored instead of black. Two boys hopped from outside chest of the machine onto the ground with ease, despite the great distance. They'd just leapt from the cockpit of the Mobile Suit known as **Aries**.

"It's an eye for an eye! Haven't you heard of that, Yuy?!" a long brown haired, violet eyed boy yelled to the boy apparently called 'Yuy". His eyes were large an emotion filled, though the emotion was anger. "You got my Gundam dismantled, so I took the liberty of-" what liberties he took, Zidane and Shadow didn't find out, for as he was talking in an airy over confident voice, the boy was quite simply full faced punched by Yuy, making him stumble back and onto the foot of the Aries Mobile Suit. Zidane looked at Shadow and though only his eyes were showing beneath his Shinobi outfit, Zidane plainly saw that Shadow didn't want to try and break them up.

"Well _I'm_ not about to let our rides kill themselves! I'm going to stop them," Zidane stated with a bit of exasperation, charging towards Yuy and the other boy. "Kira, Heero!" Zidane yelled. The two boys stopped bickering, and twisted around to face Zidane with a bow.

"Yes sir, what can I do for you?" they mimicked each other. Zidane sighed.

"First off, stop fighting, you're getting your coats dirty," the blond said, pointing to the blue and white coat that all inhabitants of the Castle Fantasy wore, which was a trench style coat with a coat of arms in the upper left and right sides which had four symbols; a crystal of each blue, red, white, and brown. The two boys obliged a bit grudgingly, and swept the dust that had clung to their coats away.

"Okay, now why don't you two tell me exactly what happened." Zidane said, acting as though he were talking to small children, though the two brown haired boys were no younger than he himself was.

"This _idiot_," began the Kira, the boy with longer brown hair, "smacked me one, as I'm sure you saw! Why do we allow this guy to be on the fleet at all, much less the _advanced _military fighting squad?!"

Zidane looked on at Kira, who was still rubbing his face, and was about to reply when the boy was forced out of the way by an abrupt push, which sent him banging into the foot of the Aries mobile suit again, headfirst.

"THIS _idiot_, went and dropped my Mobile Suit in a pile of these weird ships, and got it _obliterated!_" the other boy, Heero Yuy, countered. Kira stood up, now looking flat out pissed and stomped over.

"Yeah, but it wasn't for no reason, he did the same thing to my suit with the same guys last week! Surely you heard about that, sir?!" Kira asked, shoving Heero away (though not as far or forcefully as Heero had shoved himself).

"You don't understand, though, I _accidentally_ dropped that lame thing he calls a Gundam, he _purposefully_ out of _spite_ dropped my precious, powerful, and worthy of its name, Wing Zero Gundam into the horde of ships that obliterated it!" Heero finished, Zidane sweat dropped, but Shadow looked away and put a hand to his chin thoughtfully.

"Okay guys, mind telling me _why_ you're still fighting? After all, what's done is done," Zidane began. Heero and Kira looked at him as though they weren't willing to do anything near, and as though they still had a few more violent methods they'd like to try. However, Zidane was a tad higher up in the court than them, namely he was a protector of the Queen, self appointed and thus he held VERY high status in the court. Shadow was the same, only he was an "Interpreter" as they came to declare his job, which was basically spying on everyone in the Kingdom and keeping people out of the way of treason…Sometimes this required some _forceful_ persuasion. Due to the fact that, outside of their Gundams, Kira and Heero were pretty weak, they chose the second route and grudgingly agreed.

"Yeah, you're right." Heero said with a twitch.

"Sorry for the trouble, Zidane sir." Kira finished.

Zidane smiled at his success, and tromped over to his subordinates. "Now, we have a pressing matter, one directly from the Queen that we'd like to discuss with you," he began, removing the letter from the black and white coat of the same pattern and coat of arms as Kira's and Heero's, "namely, it's a matter of finding the King, who, I'm sure you all know, has disappeared recently." He finished, holding out the letter for the two brown haired boys to read.

Heero was about to grasp the letter, when it was snatched from the space between Zidane and himself in a flash. Both boys blinked.

"Not yet, first, I have a question." Shadow, the black clad Ninja said, he'd easily snatched the letter from the two, and was now looking intently at Kira and Heero, who'd dropped their outreached hands and put on puzzled expressions.

"Like what?" Kira queried.

"The mysterious enemies." Shadow said quietly and deliberately. No one seemed to get his meaning, as everyone blinked stupidly. Shadow sweat dropped, then dashed over and smacked Heero and Kira on the back of their heads.

"OW!" both yelled out in unison.

"You _just_ mentioned them! The mysterious enemies that blew your Gundams apart. What _were_ they?!" Shadow asked, now seeming plainly impatient.

Heero snapped his fingers. "Oh, that's…Er…We never really found out," he grinned a bit sheepishly after saying this. Kira frowned in thought, and then snapped his own fingers and a look of dawning comprehension came to his face.

"Ah, they had this weird thing on their ships, it was a symbol!" Kira said proudly. Zidane looked at Shadow, who grasped his chin in thought again.

"You think they might be connected to the King, Shadow?" the blond monkey tailed boy questioned. Shadow shook his head a bit, and then half nodded. The other three boys sweat dropped at this gesture, but didn't have time to comment before Shadow walked over to the Sign-in desk of the Mobile Suit hull. Upon reaching the desk, he thumbed through the papers and objects on it; as it was a Friday and no one was working late (at least, no one that wasn't allowed to be in the hull without a Sign-in), there was no one there to stop his leafing. The three boys looked at each other, all wondering the same thing: '_What's he doing?"'_.

Just as they were about to lodge a question, however, Shadow stopped his leafing and turned around with a notepad and a pen. "Draw it." He said simply, passing the items over to Kira and Heero. Kira looked at Heero and Heero did the same to Kira.

"Well, I guess I might be able to…" Kira said, quite flustered by his expression. He grasped the notepad and pen and began to write. A few minutes of silence later, and he held up the notepad to reveal…

"Whoa" "Weird" "Hmm". Various replies from Zidane, Shadow and even Heero, though he'd seen it before he still had to wonder why it looked like that. The symbol was a spaded black heart, the spade end being the bottom, and going through the black heart, were diagonally crossing, jagged lines.

"Yeah, I thought so too. The edges and the lines going through were red, if I remember correctly, but you only gave me black," Kira said with a bit of a shrug. "but they weren't problematic, or anything. They came in a lot of different kind of ships, but didn't really pose much of a problem in _any_ of them. I do wonder why they attacked twice in one week though." Kira finished, looking up thoughtfully.

"Wait, all this happened in one week?!" Zidane's eyes went wide as he looked. "Wait, _this_ week?!" his eyes were now the size of saucers as he looked at Kira and Heero expectantly.

Both brown haired boys nodded a bit sheepishly, but they were spared answering because at that moment, a blue robed man wearing a yellow straw hat entered. He carried a staff as tall as he himself was (which was a pretty meager 5'4") strapped to his back. He seemed to appear from nowhere at all, and took even Shadow by surprise when he spoke.

"The Heartless," he began, the four centered their eyes on him quickly, a bit apprehensive at first, but they dropped their guards, and their bodies into a bow, when he continued, "are a rash on the backside of all things peaceful. Beings that have lost their hearts to Darkness, consumed completely by it, become these ravenous creatures. They are mindless and raging, but, overall, a lethal, ravaging force, ripping from any world that is unprotected billions of hearts, and, if they can manage it, the Heart of the world itself. Placing the world into the depths of the Darkness." The man finished. He surveyed the room and scratched beneath his hat his blond head. "No, no, no! I keep telling you guys there's no need to bow!" the serious tone he'd previously taken disappeared and was replaced with one of exasperation and almost whining as he yelled.

"I'm sorry, Master Egam, it's just, well, you all always tell us that, but it feels _wrong_ to not bow before one of such stature!" Kira said, still bowing. Heero seemed to favor his opinion, but Zidane and Shadow stood up, after he relieved them of bowing, to ask questions.

"Whoa, so these things came _here_, to Fantasy Falls?" Zidane queried. The man, Egam Black, Highest Black Wizard of the Court, nodded.

"Why?" Shadow added.

"Just as I said, to destroy the wor- _I told you two to stand up_!" Egam cut off his statement to point his staff at Kira and Heero. Both boys instantly felt their spines forcefully curved upward and they yelped in pain, but were now in a standing position so they could look at Egam almost head to head (as they were only slightly shorter at 5'1"). "Now then, where was I?" Egam questioned, taking no notice of the annoyed looks given to him by Heero and Kira.

"Explaining their reason, or, their likely ones, anyway." Zidane supplied.

"Ah, yes. Well, you see, the Heartless deal in absolutes. Being made of complete darkness, they have to return everything, all the worlds, to the darkness as well. Once this is done is the only time they can truly obtain inner peace. Or so we're lead to believe."

"If they can destroy freaking _Gundams_ in minutes, do you think the King really stands a chance, or, better yet, do you think that's the 'mysterious enemy' he's going to fight?" Heero asked. No one had ever seen the King fight, though it was rumored that in his younger days he was…Well, lethal would be putting it nice.

"Well, those are just the Heartless's ships. In person they ARE quite powerful, depending on the person that became a Heartless, but still very beatable by a weapon and a warrior of light. Like the King." Egam finished. Zidane placed his hand to his chin in deep thought this time. Heero, Kira and Shadow mimicked him, but it was Zidane who spoke next.

"I got it! The King says he's going to find out a way to protect our world, meaning even _he _needs help, probably because they outnumber him, but whatever the reason, he needs more warriors of light with these weapons of light," Zidane said, very fast without taking a breath between, "so basically, all we have to do is find a place with a lot of weapons of light-and the warriors to wield them- and we'll find the King!" Zidane finished proudly. Kira and Heero blinked, and then sweat dropped.

"Uh, Zidane, sir…How would we find a place like that?" Kira asked. Silence reigned as everybody looked at Zidane, who began to grow red in the face upon the question. After a few moments of silence, Zidane looked down and trudged over to the Aries Mobile Suit.

"Just get the MS ready." He said dejectedly.

"Actually," Egam interjected once more. Everyone focused back in on him as he said, "I might know a place…"

* * *

And so, only about twenty minutes after the conversation had taken place, a blazingly fast Aries Mobile Suit (MS) swept through the surrounding stars, in search of a far off world, but one that was known for its great diversity and, perhaps, would hold the mysterious King of Fantasy Falls.

"Whoa, is that a shooting star?!" Ryouji, who had seen the MS sweep past his planet from the sky, asked his best friend.

"Probably not, but maybe it was a comet or meteor." Saito replied. The two boys had finally met up, after their mysterious encounters with the dark hooded man were driven from their minds, and were in the midst of the festival celebrating the Stars and the Gods they represented. Neither had put on their costumes; it was a week long festival and since they could only be there for a few hours that Friday, they decided they'd keep the creative designs stowed away in their backpacks, a surprise for tomorrow.

"I don't even know the difference…" Ryou sweat dropped a little, and began to head towards the booth from their starting position of the Ticket gates. "Hey, let's go see the Fireworks!"

Saito looked towards the North end of the city, about two miles away from the two, where the bare hill they had sat upon two nights before was, and also where the committee of the Shining Star Festival would be firing the fireworks off into the air.

"Hm, I think I'll go see the booths, actually," Saito said, pointing to the west, where only a quarter of a mile away were huge booths being set up. The theory was to have novelty items and once a year events held there while a huge parade of people representing one of many Gods would meander through the city every night. The parade for the day was over, but the fireworks had yet to be fired off (as Ryou pointed out) and the booths were still, for the most part, up and running.

"Aw, you won't see the fireworks with me?" Ryou said in mock sadness. "But I don't want to go all alone!" he finished with a smirk.

"Well if you could successfully ask a girl out, you wouldn't have to go alone. Mr. 'Oh, look, you dropped your pencil!" Saito countered.

"Shut up!" Ryou muttered, looking away. Saito laughed and slapped him on the back.

"I'm just joking, Ryou. You know that. But I think we can meet up again tomorrow. Everything's pretty dead anywhere here today anyway." Saito said. Ryou nodded.

"You're right, let's just chill for tonight, tomorrow I'll show you up at the parade, and then Sunday the Costume Ball!" Ryou said, referring to the Sunday Ball that was held every year. It would bring together anyone and everyone that had a costume and allowed them to have fun dancing, eating, and drinking while the best costume would be picked out by a strict panel of judges for originality and style. Saito and Ryou had one four years in a row, now, Ryou wearing the costumes that Saito designed.

Saito nodded at Ryou's sentiment, then flashed the thumbs up and dashed towards the booths. "I'll meet you here tomorrow, see you Ryou!" Saito yelled as he was dashing away. Ryou nodded, then swept his eyes across the area of the city he was in.

"…Wonder if they have a bus…" he pondered aloud, not looking forward to having to walk 2 miles to see the fireworks. After a few minutes of looking around in the area, he determined he would be trekking it. "Ah well, at least I'll get some exercise." Ryou thought with a sigh. He turned on his heel from his position and walked towards the hill. No one took notice of the dark sphere in the sky, as it twirled around, growing bigger and bigger in preparation to claim the planet's heart…

* * *

"I'll take five of the Gummis, please!" Saito said. He pulled from his pocket seventeen munny and placed it in the outstretched palm of the owner of the shop, who graciously accepted it and gave him a bag of Gummis in the shapes of cars and planes.

It had been half an hour since the two split, and Saito could honestly say he was having the time of his life. Even though Ryou wasn't there with him, he was still seeing a lot of interesting things that his best friend might've bought had he been there. It was around this time, however, that he saw someone who he'd resolved to hate: Sayu Minakawa. He looked at her, walking with her friends, as though she were a horribly disgusting bug. He crushed his bag a bit, then shoved it in his pocket, resolving to avenge his friend's unnecessary embarrassment.

"I know! He was _such_ a loser!" Sayu was saying to her black haired friend.

"He _really_ said you dropped your _pencil_?!" the black haired girl asked. Sayu nodded fervently, then they both through their head back and laughed. Saito, meanwhile, was looking around for something to put his plan into action… He spotted the fish catching stand, where anyone who paid 10 munny was given an elastic handled, flat, and paper net. The elastic was just soft enough for maneuverability, but held fast for the catch, and paper would break pretty easily, but only underwater… Saito smirked, pulling out ten more munny. He rushed up to the stand, cut several kids (who began to throw fits and call for their parents) and dropped the money in the bowl while grasping a net.

"Can I borrow this? Thanks!" Saito said in a rush without waiting for a reply to his question before thanking the startled booth owner. He dashed across the field, searching, searching… "Ah, yes!" He smirked upon his find: an anthill. The ants surrounded the hill, ready to attack any predator that came too close. Because of this, Saito placed one of the Gummis in front of the nest, where the ants were mostly concentrated. At first it was a panic for the ants, having a huge anything placed in front of them would do this, so they didn't register it was actually edible until a few moments later, where several hundred climbed aboard and began to break it up to carry it back to the nest. Saito smirked, twisting his head around to find the girl named Sayu again, figuring she'd gone quite far from her original position.

Luck was with him, she had hardly move. Saito smirked, and pulled on the gloves that went with his costume, which were tight, black, and fingerless only at the tip. He grasped the Gummi, maneuvering it around so that the ants wouldn't get on himself much, placed it on the net, then took of his glove and set it down to let the ants remove themselves while he picked up the net with the ant infested Gummi. 'Here goes nothing!"' Saito thought, pulling back the net with as much force as he could without outright breaking it, and then he released, aiming directly at Sayu.

"EW!" Sayu shrieked as she was hit by the whizzing gummi, directly in the side of her head! Her long blond hair was now crawling with very confused ants. Sayu, however, didn't notice the ants, only the sticky green plane shaped Gummi. Saito figured that would happen, and laughed silently to himself, waiting….

"AH! Sayu! ANTS!" her friend yelled not ten seconds after the gummi had impacted upon Sayu. Sayu blinked for a minute, then she paled as a few of the ants found their way out of her blond hair and onto her face…

"AHHH!" Sayu erupted in fear and shock. She dashed away from the clearing she and her friend were at faster than Ryouji had lost his nerve to ask her out earlier that day. Saito never felt so great.

'Now _that's_ taking care of business! Man, Ryou,"' the blond boy began thinking cheerfully, 'you _so_ owe me after that!"' he rounded up his thoughts, dashing away from the 'Scene of the Crime'.

Saito had about two minutes of uninterrupted and undisturbed glee in the forest area around where the Festival was taking place before he calmed himself down enough to notice that the night had become pitch black. It held an eerie darkness instead of the expected darkness for night's arrival. 'That's weird…How long was I fooling around?"' Saito questioned himself mentally, looking around a bit nervously. As he was looking around ahead of himself, the shadows beneath his very feet were slowly swirling and seeping out from beneath the ground.

"I guess it's a hint, I should get back home," Saito said aloud. He sighed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and began to walk away. Before he took ten steps, however, the Shadows finished their forming, and beneath him in a circle, several dozen pure black creatures pulled themselves from beneath the ground. Saito, not having superb eyesight, didn't seem to notice…At least, not until he heard…The scream…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" A high, bloodcurdling shriek resounded through the crowd behind him. Saito twisted around, pulling his hands from his pocket and holding them at his sides as he looked in that direction, now a bit apprehensive. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw the Heartless symbol, and a black claw stretching out towards his chest….

* * *

Ryouji, meanwhile, had heard the same bloodcurdling howl on his silent walk through the city. He twisted around the same way his best friend halfway across the city did, surveying the area for only a split second before it registered with his brain that a miniscule black blur with claws was speeding towards him. "WHA!" Ryou yelled out in shock, dodging to the left of the claw, only to feel another two scrape his right ankle and cheek. He flat out rolled after that, straight behind a large oak tree on the sidewalk.

"Wh-what was that?!" Ryou asked the air, looking at the minor scrapes he had from the beasts' claws. The shadows; small pure black creatures with little antennae on their foreheads and glowing, demonic, yellow eyes, were now surrounding him. It was about 30 to one, by what Ryou could see. "Ah crap!" Ryou thought, looking at the Shadows surrounding him. 'What am I supposed to do now?"' he thought to himself as they began to go into their hunting postures, crawling on all fours in a zigzagging pattern around him.

'Am I, going to die?"' Ryou asked himself, as the creatures claws looked far more than threatening to him, and he had no defense against them but his bare skin…

* * *

Saito, meanwhile, was bleeding profusely form the shoulder, cheek, and his right leg. His breathing labored from all the attacks he'd tried to dodge and failed, or only halfway succeeded in some cases, he backed up and leaned against a tree. 'Crap, what the heck are these things?! Why are they here?!"' he was constantly asking his weakened body. He knew he'd never get an answer at this rate. Another Shadow lunged at him, he clumsily leapt to the side, moaning from the pain upon landing. "Agh!" he squeezed his eyes shut in pain as he landed on his side, thinking only one thing.

'I wish I could fight…I wish I could…_KILL!_"' Saito thought savagely, peaking open an eye…Which now had a blood red iris instead of his usual grey.

"Do you want…Power?" a voice echoed, Saito didn't care to try to locate the owner he was in so much pain.

'Yes!"' he thought, not able to talk anymore. The voice somehow knew his answer, as it asked:

"Why do you want, power? For Revenge? For Survival? Or for Supremacy?" the voice queried, deep and mellow. It was awfully familiar to Saito, but the bleeding boy didn't care. Even now, the Heartless were slashing at his body, playing with him like a bag of meat and flesh; like a toy.

It was then, that Saito felt it, the reason he wanted-no-_held_ power: Vengeance. He'd always gotten back at anyone that pissed himself or Ryou off, even just before now, he'd just avenged Ryou's embarrassment. It was so obvious! "I want power…For myself and those I care about…I want power, to give their offenders vengeance. I want the power of Revenge!" Strength had come back to him. Saito leapt up, his body erupting with power, he stood up, no more than stood, he _floated_ up; flipping around in midair and landing on the ground with an even deeper darkness than what surrounded him emanating from his body. He had claimed his power.

* * *

The Dark orb in the sky suddenly doubled in size, no, _quadrupled_. Now it seemed to take up the entire sky of the city; it was also now a perfect replica of a vacuum, draining in small things while slowly pulling apart the large ones. The 'smaller' things being cats and dogs. Ryou noticed this, but didn't have much time to ponder upon it, as he was now almost in as bad of shape as his best friend. 'Darn, what now?!"' Ryou asked himself again. He looked at his surroundings, and realized how useless almost infinite darkness would be in a fight against components of it.

"Well, I would've liked to have gotten some answers…But I guess I won't get any, huh?" Ryouji asked bitterly. The black haired boy shook his head, laughing to himself almost directly after that statement. "Heh, what the heck am I talking about?" he asked himself, placing his right foot in front of him along with his right hand. "I'm not going down…Without a FIGHT!" Ryou yelled, launching himself straight into the…light?!

"Do you want… Power?" the same voice-no- one far softer and less bored, asked. Ryouji found himself surrounded by light, and he pondered where he was for a moment, making him miss the question at first.

"Huh, what?" the boy asked.

"You want power, correct?" the voice asked, though it didn't sound annoyed. Ryou blinked, then shrugged.

"Well, I never really thought about it before, but yeah, I guess." Ryou said, placing a hand behind his head and scratching it a bit sheepishly. "I mean, being strong would allow me to help Saito more, right? Then again, maybe he doesn't need protection-" Ryou didn't get to finish, for the voice cut him off.

"Then you want power for…the protection…of _others_?" the voice asked, it sounded mildly surprised. Ryou looked around the white void; for now its corners were blurring with darkness and Ryou didn't like that one bit, however, he felt a heavy presence in his hand, and he looked at it just as the voice finished its statements with: "What a strange thing, for the weapon of Darkness, to be wielded by one of such Light."

The realm of light dispersed, but not before Ryou had gotten a good look at the weapon. It was a long, sharp Katana. The blade was a pure black, and it had an odd handle that was a full pentagon, the same fashion of pentagon as Superman's chest pattern. The blade also had a chain going off the bottom of which there was a pure, deep blue Crystal hanging. **Keytana**. Ryou knew the weapon's name, just as he'd known the name NullVoid in the dream…

BOOM! The streets rumbled darkly. Ryou jumped, looking around to see that the Heartless around him had stopped attacking as he studied the weapon. Behind himself and the Heartless, was a towering creature that was now all too familiar to Ryou: the previously mentioned NullVoid himself. "Think of the Devil." Ryou snickered; he twisted around, and held the Keytana forward, filled with a will to fight now that he had such a weapon. "Let's get started!" Ryou said, charging into the horde of Heartless.

The first ones he took out were easy; he blindsided them with ferocious volley of sword strikes and kept away from their claws by rolling or jumping. After taking down a third of the Heartless horde; an even ten, he'd been forced to get more creative as the Heartless adapted. He rolled beneath two, but this time, as he stood up from the maneuver he saw 2 Heartless leaping at him. "Whoa!" Ryou ducked under one and slashed the other from behind. Immediately after doing that he back flipped and stabbed downward to kill the creature of darkness that he'd ducked under. He landed easily on his feet, then pressed the Keytana against the ground from his position. He quickly spun around, making a few sparks leap from the street as he slashed four more Heartless that had leapt in foolishly to dust.

"Man, this thing makes it easy!" Ryou smirked, slashing his blade through another recklessly leaping Heartless. He then rolled forward through three more, coming out of the roll a second later and spinning around to cut all three of the clueless creatures into pieces. 'Ten more to go!"' Ryou thought to himself. Now, however, things were even trickier; 9 of the last ten heartless were circling in their normal pattern, but one leapt at him up high. He easily upper slashed that one into oblivion, but six of the nine left then sank into the ground as shadows, something he'd not expected. "What the-ARGH!" Ryou yelled as the three that hadn't sank beneath him leapt at him when his guard was down. He pulled one off of him, tossing it into the wall. He stabbed upward and killed one that had leapt on his head, then slammed his foot by the side into the building he'd tossed the other Heartless on, crushing them both.

Two of the six sinking Heartless leapt up and came at him from two sides, left and right. Ryou quickly devised a plan and put it into action; he stabbed the Keytana into the ground and pulled off his backpack, unzipping it in the same fluid motion he removed it from his back. He then opened the bag fully and held it out to his right side, where the Heartless had leapt from and, being that it was in midair, couldn't change its direction. As a result of this, it landed squarely in the backpack. "Got ya'!" Ryou smirked, zipping it quickly while he ducked beneath the Heartless coming from the right. With another incredibly fluid charge, he pulled his backpack back with all the force he could muster, and crushed the two Heartless; one was crushed while inside the backpack, the other was flattened against the street. However, he wasn't fast enough to avoid two claws to the stomach when he did this, and so he ended up stumbling back and almost dropping his backpack, now devoid of Heartless.

"Hey, that's playing dirty!" Ryou yelled, rubbing his side. He ducked a midair claw from another Heartless, then performed another magnificent roll which got him over to the Keytana. "Time to end this!" Ryou smirked confidently, pulled the Keytana from the ground with his left hand, and slashed one of the three Heartless now above ground in half. The other two were zigzagging again, so he took the opportunity to toss his backpack up, turn his Keytana to the flat side of the blade, pull back as though he were playing baseball while the backpack went up, and, as the cloth bag was coming back down, yelled "Batter up!". He slammed his Keytana's flat side into the back pack and hit a Heartless head on, crushing it with ease.

"You know I _rock_!" Ryou smirked, slicing the final above ground Heartless into dark wisps when it had foolishly charged. "Now it's time for WHACK-A-MOLE!" Ryou's comments never ceased, as he raised his Keytana above his head, tracked the only moving shadow, back flipped through the air right above it as it was beginning to emerge from beneath the concrete street, and stabbed the Keytana down hard enough to cut through the cement as well as the dark being emerging from it. "Game over!" Ryou smirked. BAM! It felt like he'd been hit by a sledgehammer.

Right after he'd banished thirty Heartless, he'd been punched head on by the building sized NullVoid, and bounced back into an actual building, cracking the concrete when he hit. "Uh!" Ryou moaned, falling onto the ground and rolling over in pain. "Th-that…hurt…" the black haired boy stood up shakily, then his eyes went wide as he saw the sky.

Now the entire sky was an orb of pure darkness, draining in structures as large as houses, buildings, and, worst of all, it drew in _people_. "No way!" Ryou said. He looked at the Keytana. "This must protect me…" he guessed. His eyes narrowed and he felt rage as he looked at the sky again. "Alright then, if I'm the only one who can fight…I'll fight…Saito, don't get killed!" Ryou yelled, charging in for an attack.

NullVoid didn't seem to remember Ryou, for its opening gambit didn't give way to any rage it might have been feeling. However, it didn't make it any less lethal. Ryou ran as fast as he could, dodging and swerving away from shadow spikes that had just ejected out of NullVoid's shoulder armor. "Come on, that all you got?!" Ryou asked, a bit angrier than when he'd taunted the Heartless previously. He looked at Null Void, wondering how to harm something so big… 'I've got to bring him down to my level!"' the black haired boy thought. He steadied his backpack with that plan in mind, and dashed towards the giant's feet.

NullVoid's eyes glowered, and it raised a spiky hand, sending it crashing down towards Ryou. Ryou put on a burst of speed he'd been saving just in case NullVoid attempted something like that. It was enough to get him directly out of the fist's way, but not enough to counteract the shockwave it made. Ryou stumbled back a bit, and ended up leaning against the fist. However, he didn't have long to regain his composure as NullVoid had drew back his fist, and raised it just as quickly.

"WAH!" Ryou yelped, rolling under a car and narrowly avoiding the fist. 'This isn't working! But how else can I get in a lethal shot?! There's no way I can jump up there..."' Ryou thought. NullVoid was now searching the expanse of the city with his glowing red eyes, seeming to wonder where the boy with the Keytana was. Ryou bit his thumb nail. 'There's nothing I can do…Unless I want to die…"' the boy thought bitterly. 'Too bad I can't just hand him a present and make him-"' Ryou's thoughts began, but they cut themselves off s he realized one word in the sentence solved his problem.

'That's it! NullVoid's _hand_! Why didn't I think of it before?"' Ryou asked himself, slamming his hand against his head and sticking his tongue out to symbolize a big goof. 'Well, now all I have to do is make it work! Jeez, I_ really_ hate my life!"' Ryou thought with a sigh. He closed and re opened his eyes, then forced himself into action. "Hey, ugly!" he bellowed as loudly as he could. NullVoid twisted around, raising its fist as it searched. It's ugly red eyes narrowed as they locked onto Ryou, waving his hands brazenly. It seemed to growl, then brought its fist down directly on Ryou. The resounding shockwave sent the car Ryou had hid under flying into the back alley to its left.

NullVoid was satisfied. It lifted the fist attached to its body, and looked towards the ground where it expected to see Ryou's crushed body…Nothing close was there. It blinked, but didn't have to ponder long, as a loud voice rang out: "Hey, ugly! Time for you to go Bye-bye!" Ryou yelled from the behemoth's hand. The beast twirled around to look at its fist with surprising speed, but it was already too late, Ryou had leapt off the fist with as much force as he could, he raised his Keytana, pulling behind him as he held it with both hands, he then gritted his teeth, willing himself to do every bit of damage he could in one hit… The blade slashed through NullVoid's still surprised face, and extended through its entire head. The beast flat out roared this time; the planet seemed to roar with him and Ryou, who had faded through the whole in NullVoid's head, was now realizing one fatal flaw in his plan: he couldn't survive landing from 200ft. in the air.

'Crap!"' Ryou thought, his eyes closing as he realized his screw up. 'Oh well, at least I put up a fight!"' the boy thought. The planet seemed to think the same. The buildings now crumbled with increasing speed, and in the split seconds of Ryou's fall, they had been reduced to all around nothingness, they'd been absorbed into the darkness. Ryou looked around at his planet what he thought was one last time, before he saw a blinding flash of something that was neither Darkness, nor Light, but just pure undisturbed energy, blowing his precious planet into smithereens. Then, everything went white…

* * *

From his keep on Castle Fantasy, Master Egam Black, Highest order Black wizard of the Court and sister to the very Queen of Fantasy Falls, Gema White, was looking across at the stars, and saw one in the far distance blink out of existence. He sighed, and adjusted his straw hat. _'Another star, ceases to shine… Hurry, King Grifeth!_"' he thought, praying with all his might that the Heartless wouldn't claim any more of the precious Universe.

* * *

A/N: Well, another chapter completed! Next time we'll find out where the adventurers from Castle Fantasy went; not to mention more on Saito. Interested yet? As always, read and review! Next chapter is when we'll REALLY be out of the introductory stages…Well sort of… Thanks for all my reviews so far, and I hope to receive many more, after all, I won't be able to improve greatly without them! Until next time! 


	4. Commerce City

A/N: AH! I just realized I'd been forgetting the disclaimers! Why haven't you people reminded me?! XD. Well, I'll make sure to put them here from now on, sorry for anyone that might've thought I owned Kingdom Hearts…I don't even own the game anymore… :(

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or anything of Square Enix's in any form other than commercial merchandise.

_Chapter3: Commerce City _

The darkness swirled around him. This familiar blanket of dark was constantly swirling and surging around Saitoshi Iwamoto as he twisted around to take in all his surroundings. It was pretty much darkness in a deep encompassing sphere that he didn't think he'd ever be able to escape. "W-where am I?!" he asked the darkness. The last thing the boy could remember was being attacked by several yellow eyed pure black creatures. He remembered bleeding a lot, and then wishing for-. 'Wait!"' Saito caught himself in his remembrances. He looked down at his body, and realized that all the prior wounds he'd sustained trying his best at a defense against the mysterious shadowy beasts were gone. He didn't question his fortunes too much, for before he could, a voice rang out; speaking slowly and with a cold tone.

"So you've awakened, good, good," the voice began. Saito stared around for it; he was getting a little tired of hearing voices; though he supposed his psyche didn't care as he _was_ still hearing them. "Don't worry, you're in your right mind. As a matter of fact, you're in even better mind than you've been the rest of your life." The voice uttered. Saito nodded slowly, wanting to see if the man would show himself.

"Now then, why don't you take in your surroundings…And your new form; we don't have a lot of time to waste, after all," the voice continued. Saito blinked; he'd already assessed his surroundings of total darkness, and the only thing different about him was his…Attire? Saito did a double take as he was surveying himself, his eyes went wide at what registered with them: Where before he was wearing a black blazer and slacks; the normal school uniform for people in Starlight City, now he was wearing a long black leather trench coat with red gloves that had a black circle in the middle. There were black boot draped around his feet and his undershirt was the same he'd wore before, so were his black slacks, only they seemed to have been washed and dried and were now cleaned of blood stains and Saito even noticed an old tear was gone. However, most unusually, he found he now had a pure white scarf circling around his neck.

'That's why I could see, this thing is practically shining!"' Saito smirked, grasping the scarf.

"Ah, you can finally touch it, and see it too; I presume." The voice echoed throughout the area again. Saito looked up and around again for it, but didn't get anything but another phrase for his troubles. "I'd advise you not to get careless…They won't stop coming after your light…Your _life_ until they destroy it." The voice said somberly. Saito, twisting around, realized that the scarf was cutting bright pathways through the air as he twirled around to look for the voice. Due to this, the room was illuminated for a brief instant, before it returned to pure darkness. However, in the wake of the white afterimages, shadows begin to form, and these shadows were much more mobile than any Saito had seen before…With the exception of a certain group of shadows he'd seen earlier…

"Wh-whoa! What's going on?!" Saito backed away from the twisting shadows that slowly illuminated themselves with their pure yellow eyes. "No, not again!" Saito yelled out to the voice, pleadingly.

"Hm, so pathetic. You're not supposed to beg." The voice enunciated. Saito glared up at the voice, suddenly feeling rage like he had never felt before at the provocation.

"I'm _not_ pathetic!" Saito yelled out.

"Good, good," the voice began as the creatures fully emerged from the ground and bent down getting ready to leap at Saito, "then fight, use your power. Your _true_ power, the power of darkness!" the voice exclaimed. Saito blinked as he looked around. He then snickered.

"You gotta be kidding me," the blond haired boy commented. He grasped the scarf he had around his neck a bit nervously, but he stopped backing away. 'I'm not sure why, but I don't feel afraid anymore!"' Saito thought to himself, removing the scarf completely. He somehow felt that he _knew_ what he was doing, even though he'd never seen the scarf before. Even though he didn't know where the end of the line would be, he knew his actions would lead to defeating these beasts. "Alright, I'm going to take you guys down, if you want this, you'll have to take it!" Saito yelled, charging towards the shadowy creatures that had plagued him in two worlds now. Unbeknownst to him, the owner of the voice was watching, and smiling.

* * *

Zidane sniffed the air reproachfully, his nostrils were offended by the smells that came to them in this new surrounding. The surrounding itself wasn't offensive; there were many brick and concrete buildings surrounding several cobbling streets that disappeared into the distance in one direction or the other. There weren't cars, however, that went through this street, but instead a multitude of people. Walking and talking, every now and then doing something more, like insulting, or running around. Children and adults alike frolicked in the shops to the side of the streets and between the buildings. This entire place appeared quite cheerful, light, and pure, but Zidane could smell that horrible smell, though no one else seemed to notice. 

"What the heck is that smell?!" the tailed boy asked his companions. Kira Yamato, Heero Yuy, and Shadow the Ninja had also removed themselves from the badly beaten (due to quite a few encounters with enemy ships on the way there) Aries Mobile Suit, and were now standing next to Zidane wearing puzzled looks at his query.

"What smell?" Kira asked. Zidane blinked.

"You don't smell it?" Zidane replied. "It's familiar, yet really weird at the same time…" he offered vaguely. The others couldn't give him anything back; none of them smelled anything.

"I think you're imagining things…" Heero said. Zidane frowned, then sighed and began to walk forward.

"Regardless, Master Egam said we should find someone from Castle Fantasy here, so we should probably start-Oof!" Zidane had been walking with his eyes closed, and, as a result, ended up slamming directly into another person. Heero and Kira snickered, but Shadow dashed over to the two- the one who had bumped into Zidane and Zidane himself.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" silver hair and deep, crimson eyes were the first things that Zidane noticed, upon looking from the back of his eyelids (he'd squeezed his eyes shut in pain when he fell) to the boy he'd bumped into. His startling appearance, however, was offset by both the glare that he was giving Zidane, and the fact that he had on light brown and tattered robes, and he held bags under the crimson eyes.

"Eh-er-ur-S-sorry!" the tailed boy hoped to his feet and raised his hands in defense. The other boy surveyed him for a moment longer, but then shrugged and twisted around grumpily. Shadow, Kira and Heero hopped up behind Zidane, Kira and Heero trying to keep from giggling and Shadow shaking his head.

"Hey, what are those looks for?!" Zidane pouted, folding his arms. His cheeks were burning from the incident, and he could tell that it would be quite a funny story to tell others about how a self appointed aid of the King was intimidated by an ordinary peasant. After a few minutes, Heero and Kira managed to calm down, though Zidane was still blushing. Shadow spoke up after the giggling subsided

"We should look for a hotel, or something, I guess…" his voice trailed off as he twisted his head around to look for one. Zidane nodded.

"Agreed. Though I'm not sure if I want to got to a hotel with people so rude staying there," Zidane commented. Heero smirked.

"Ever think maybe people just don't like you?" he asked. Zidane gave him a glare, then twisted his own head in several directions to search for a place to shelter the quartet for the night.

"If I had to choose between people being naturally rude and grumpy, or because they just don't like you, I'd say it's the latter." All four boys twisted around to look upon the new voice. Shadow looked especially startled to see another sandy blond haired man; this one with a dagger at his waist and a blue bandana around his head, not to mention blue pants and a blue vest pulled over a yellow tank top, that had appeared.

"How did you do that?!" Shadow remarked. He was meaning how did the new arrival slip beneath his senses- as a Shinobi, he was trained to be able to detect any but another Shinobi- and then only if the opposing Shinobi was quite skilled. However, Shadow didn't sound alert or wary, just curious- he trusted the man.

"Heh, how do I _always _do it, Shadow? I just _move_!" the blond haired man responded with a laugh. Heero blinked, wondering how Shadow knew this man. "Who're these guys?" the man asked Shadow, motioning over Kira, Heero, and Zidane.

"Oh, sorry." Shadow started, seemingly snapping out of a daze. "Locke; these guys are Kira, Heero, and Zidane, they work with me at Fantasy Falls. Zidane, Kira, Heero, this is Locke- he was an- er…" Shadow looked up for a moment, trying to find the word to describe the relation to Locke.

"…Accomplice." Locke supplied with amusement painted over his face. Shadow snapped his fingers and pointed at Locke as if to say 'That's it!'.

"Yeah, he was an accomplice of mine in previous work." Shadow finished smoothly.

"Actually, not _just _previous works." Locke replied, his previously boyish face becoming stony and serious. When the other four boys blinked at him in obvious puzzlement, he turned on his heel, and said: "Follow me." With that enigmatic note and a nervous look around, Locke took off through the streets of Commerce City with four very baffled men following him.

* * *

Pain. That was the first sense that came to Ryouji's mind as he was yanked from his restful state and peace of mind. His entire body was one huge ache, he suspected. "Ow…" he slowly raised his body from the gray streets of Commerce City, holding it in a sitting position. It didn't appear as though he had any major injuries; but his muscles were sore, he had quite a few bruises, and the horrible aching of his head wouldn't allow him rest even if he wanted too continue. Naturally, though, the black haired boy didn't want to continue to let time creak by in this strange new place that didn't even look like it belonged in his city…

'Wait a minute…"' Ryouji twisted his head around suddenly, his heart beating fast as he began to realize the oddities surrounding him. ' "Fullmetal" and "Crystania" those streets aren't in my city… And those black _things_, what happened to them?! Where're Saito, and my mom and dad?!"' Ryouji leapt to his feet faster than he realized he could, and looked around frantically for anything or anyone that even _resembled_ someone from his city…his World. No one could've told him that he wasn't on his world. The black haired boy's heart didn't stop pounding, even as sucked in breath after breath and dashed out the alleyway and down the streets. He didn't feel very tired even as sweat began to pour down his face. He ran through crowd after crowd of confused people. He dashed madly down street after street of curving and twisting gray streets. Nothing lead him to a place he found familiar.

'Okay, calm down, there _are_ people here; I'll get directions-yeah, that's what anyone idiot would've done in the first place!"' Ryouji laughed a bit to himself and stopped his mad dashing. He brushed his hands thorough his hair and adjusted his backpack (which he had just remembered held his super awesome self made "Battle" clothing) and walked into the nearest shop he saw- an accessory shop by the name of "Eiko's Equips".

The bell rang as he popped in, and he looked at the front desk first. Behind the counter was a beautiful black haired girl in orange and white attire. He sucked in a breath as she looked up from reading something he couldn't see, and stomped forward.

"Hi, may I help you?" the woman asked sweetly. Ryouji nodded sheepishly.

"Er, actually, that is….How do I get to Starlight City?" he decided he could be shy and beat around the bush after he figured out what all the craziness around him was about.

"Is that a bar, or something?" the woman asked kindly.

Ryouji blinked, wondering whether he should call her an idiot for thinking it was a bar when he'd specified City, but held his tongue. "No, it's, a _city_." He said. Then, with vigor: "It should be around here, I know it should!" he leaned eagerly towards her, but she frowned.

"I don't know of any Starlight city, sir, but I haven't been here for that long, maybe Eiko can actually help you, hold on!" she hopped up enthusiastically and bounced away behind the desk into a back room that was off limits to non-employees. Ryouji looked around nervously after she disappeared from sight.

'This actually would be a nice place to shop."' The black haired boy found himself thinking as he looked up and down the rows of equipment. There were barrels filled to the brim with little colorful orbs called 'Materia', several shelves all around the store's walls that had bladed weaponry of many varieties, shields on stands above the sword shelves, even staffs and low caliber guns were displayed behind glass cabinets. He frowned and walked over to a barrel of Materia, and picked up a little blue orb which had a sticker saying "Thunder" on it.

'Hm, wonder what you do with these…"' Ryouji thought to himself, holding up the orb. CRASH! Ryouji jumped, tossing the sphere back into the barrel. He then turned his attention to the back room, where the crash had erupted from. The doorway opened and out popped the familiar black haired woman- only now she looked thoroughly stressed and appeared near tears.

"Eiko! Stop hitting me! I said I'm sorry!" she yelled. Ryouji blinked.

'Who is she-"' he began in wonder, not seeing an Eiko or anyone hitting her, but before he could finish his query, there was a loud BANG and flames speared from the room behind her and slammed into the poor girl. Ryouji's eyes went wide as he saw the girl yelp, then dash faster out into the open and finally duck behind him. Ryouji barely registered she was behind him as he saw another ball of fire blaze forth at high speed. He took immediate action- leaping out of the way and straight into a barrel full of Materia. "What the heck was that?!" the boy yelled to the woman he'd met previously.

"That was…for…" a sinister- though high pitched voice erupted from behind him- in the doorway off limits to normal customers. Both the girl (who WAS crying by this point) and Ryouji turned to look upon the face of a brown horned, blue haired girl that wasn't over 4ft, yet still looked like the Queen of evil. Ryouji understood why the girl next to him was crying, now, this little girl-presumably Eiko- had a fire red orb of Materia in her hand and it was already glowing which Ryouji didn't think was a good sign.

"breaking…my…concentration!" Eiko yelled finally.

"I'm sorry, Eiko, but this guy needs t-" the girl next to Ryouji was cut off as Ryouji himself leapt to his feet faster than a shot.

"HELL NO! I didn't need anything…Please don't kill me!" Ryouji yelled defensively. Eiko looked at him suspiciously.

"Where are you from, with those lame clothes?" Eiko queried with a suspicious glare at his school uniform. Ryouji looked down at himself in confusion.

"It's just my school uniform." He supplied with a nervous gulp. Eiko's eyes went wide at that. She turned to the girl, dropping the Materia in the process.

"Garne-I mean- Dagger! Did you hear that?!" she asked in excitement. Ryouji was feeling extremely confused, as the girl beside him, Dagger stood up and looked at him with the same awed expression as her previous fire ball throwing pursuer.

"Did you say…School?! As in, a school in this city you're talking of?!" Dagger asked excitedly. Ryouji nodded carefully.

"Uh, yeah…Why is that so shocking?" he asked.

"Probably because there's no such thing as a school in this whole World." A deep voice erupted from behind Eiko, this time. Eiko jumped along with Ryouji and Dagger- who should have seen the man coming, but he blended to well into the darkness behind Eiko.

"Who are you?" Ryouji asked. The man that had stepped from the shadows was tall with short cut blond hair and blue eyes. His eyes didn't belie hate or evil, so Ryouji felt a little less awkward about seeing him step out of the shadows without actually _seeing_ him, but he was still wary. "And what is that supposed to mean?" the black haired boy finished.

"My name is Sabin, and it means just what it sounds like it means- there's no such thing as 'School' in this World. Meaning you came from another world, right?" Ryouji was now feeling uncomfortable. He backed away a bit as Sabin stepped forward, past Eiko.

"It's okay, there's no need to be afraid- at least not of me." Sabin said, continuing to walk towards Ryouji. Ryouji felt like a rabbit being approached by a hunter. He didn't know why he was so afraid of this man-maybe because he was talking about other planets, potentially- but he decided that he didn't really want to stick around if this place was full of shadow dwelling, fire ball shooting cry babies.

"Sure, well, I'll be going now…" Ryouji said maneuvering around the desk towards the door-walking backwards, of course. Sabin stopped in his tracks.

"You've seen them, haven't you? You saw them destroy your world?!" Sabin now sounded a bit surprised, and Dagger and Eiko popped up behind him eagerly awaiting Ryouji's answer to the odd question.

"Yeah, you have to have seen them- so you're one of us now!" Eiko said happily. Ryouji half wanted to dash out of there, but an eerie memory floated to his mind…

'That black sphere that was tearing up the city…Those little things, and Nullvoid with that mark on him….Heartless?"' Ryouji pondered. He paused, and his fear of these people seemed to evaporate. "My planet's…gone?" he asked in a dazed voice.

Sabin looked down. "Was there a big black orb in the sky? And little creatures with yellow eyes, maybe?" Sabin asked casually. Ryouji gulped and nodded. "Well then, since you're here. Yes." the blond haired man said somberly. Ryouji shook his head.

"No, no, no, my dad was-is my dad-Saito-my mom too…Where are they?! They HAVE to be here, right?! Why am I the only one?! WHAT'S GOING ON!!!" Ryouji said very quickly and, towards the end, loudly. None of the three employees said a word all of them were looking saddened by Ryouji's predicament.

DING. Ryouji twisted around as the tiny shop bell rung, signaling someone coming through. Or several someones, he quickly realized upon seeing five men walk through the door.

"Zidane!" Dagger and Eiko erupted in shock. Ryouji turned to them only to see blurs of black and blue pass him and slam into one of the boys in the doorway.

"Whoa! Hey, Garnet, Eiko!" a sandy haired blond boy in the doorway replied happily. Eiko had grasped his legs happily, hugging them close, and Dagger went straight for his torso, hugging at least as tight. "I mean," Zidane began to correct himself upon seeing Ryouji, "_Dagger_, Eiko…" Zidane was plainly trying to see if Ryouji had heard him say Garnet, and, despite Ryouji's inner emotional struggle, he had to wonder how stupid the guy was. Everyone sweat dropped.

"I think he heard you, man…" Heero commented. Zidane sighed.

"Ah well, I try…" he replied.

"Where have you BEEN?!" Eiko yelled up to Zidane from the area of legs. Dagger nodded at the question. Zidane sweat dropped this time, and placed a hand behind his head.

"Sorry for not visiting you guys that much- but why are _you_ guys _here?_" Zidane asked. Ryouji wondered if he was the only one confused, as no one was explaining anything to anyone else.

"Well, when you guys left I- Wait a minute…Whose he?" Zidane asked, seeming to suddenly notice Ryouji.

"Well at least I didn't have to fake cough…" Ryouji muttered, walking up to Zidane as Eiko and Dagger hopped off of him. "My name is Ryouji, and I was actually going to ask you the same thing…" he said. Zidane frowned. Shadow, Heero and Kira stepped forward to get a better look at the previously unnoticed Ryouji.

"You're working with them?" Kira asked. Ryouji frowned.

"No, I just came in to get directions…Apparently to a city on a world that no longer exists…" Ryouji looked away after the last comment. Heero and Kira blinked, not seeming to realize the meaning behind that statement, but Shadow bowed his head and Zidane looked at him somberly.

"Oh, sorry. Well, if there's anything we can do, just ask." Zidane said, detaching himself from Eiko and Dagger and walking over to Ryouji. Ryouji shrugged.

"I doubt there's anything _anyone_ can do after a World's been destroyed, right?" the black haired boy asked with a tinge of annoyance- or maybe it was anger.

No one said anything. Ryouji closed his eyes then re opened them with fury played out on his face. "I don't need charity anyway." He muttered. With that, the boy who had lost his world dashed from the store-this time without interference- and out into the lonely street, just barely illuminated by the setting sun.

* * *

**A/N: **Well, sorry for the late update, but, what can I say? Lack of reviews doesn't exactly help the update pace… Anyway, if anyone is actually enjoying this story, I'll try and have the next chapter up soon- I was actually going to prolong this one a bit more, and so I've actually started on the next chapter-since it was attached to this one. On another note, how many characters do you recognize? Tell me in a review!...Yes, I just used a severely cheap tactic of asking a question to get more reviews. Thanks to Rex and Link for my reviews thus far! See you guys soon (perhaps). 


	5. The Boy who would be a Heartless

_Chapter 4: The Boy who would be a Heartless_

The silence that had filled the Accessory shop took a while to subside. Finally, the burly blond man by the name of Sabin cleared his throat and looked towards the door that Ryouji had just left through. "Should we go after him?" he asked the others. Everyone seemed reluctant to answer, but after a while, Locke stepped forward with a sigh.

"No- he'll have to learn to deal with it in his own time. What's more important now…" Locke trailed off, turning to face Zidane, Shadow, Kira, and Heero. Dagger loosened her arms which still hung around Zidane's neck from her hug, and looked at Locke as apprehensively as the other four men. "is finding out why Fantasy Falls had to send out two ace Gundam pilots and 'negotiators'," he looked at Shadow and Zidane with hints of a smile at the word 'negotiator', making Zidane place a hand behind his head and giggle.

"That's something to discuss most definitely," Shadow concurred, stepping forward past Zidane, who took up a serious face again. "Now let's go somewhere we won't be overheard- I've got a lot to say." Shadow finished. The whole gang nodded in unison and followed Shadow towards the back of the Accessory Shop, away from prying ears.

Ryouji, meanwhile, ended up circling behind the Accessory shop, due to several roadblocks and dead ends that he didn't fell like passing illegally through. As a matter of fact, he didn't feel much like doing anything other than crying. "Damn it!" the black haired boy kicked a roadside can several feet away in anger. "Why the hell do I have to get the complicated life?!" he asked. Ryouji squeezed his eyes shut to avoid crying, though no one was there to see him break down, he still felt he had to be ashamed of crying.

Unfortunately, squeezing his eyes shut turned out to be a rather lousy thing to do- for he made the same mistake Zidane made earlier, and bumped into a familiar silver haired boy… "DAMN IT! WHAT'S WITH THIS CITY?!!" the silver haired beggar (by the looks of his tattered brown cloak) yelled, enraged at having been knocked to the ground without warning twice in the same day.

Ryouji's eyes went wide and his first instinct was to run as he saw the boys red eyes swivel around to bear into his own. "So-sorry, I swear I didn't mean to!" Ryouji waved his hands in front of his face in defense. The boy stood up and looked as though he didn't believe him, but he didn't get a chance to say anything, for just then, from the depths of the shadows made by streetlights, black shapes began to emerge…Very familiar black shapes…

* * *

"THE KING LEFT?!" Four astonished voices shrieked. These four voices belonged to the very shocked Eiko, Dagger, Sabin, and Locke, and they'd just got through hearing the 'short' account of how Zidane, Kira, Shadow, and Heero came to be in the world known as Commerce City. Zidane nodded fervently, eager to continue, it seemed. 

"Yeah, the queen had a similar reaction…" the tailed boy responded grimly. "However, we have good news with it. King Grifeth left in his letter a lot of odd stuff, but we basically got from it that he's searching for a weapon of light- and a wielder of this weapon." Zidane started to recount the letter.

"And according to Master Egam Black," Kira jumped in mid story, "that weapon would likely come here with its wielder- because the wielder would be destined to use it to save the worlds." Kira finished.

Dagger and Eiko looked rather confused, Sabin looked grim, and Locke simply nodded, apparently they were all over their shock from previous news, however, as they leapt in to ask questions.

"How do we know the King's not here?!" came from the tiny Eiko.

"What if Master Egam was wrong?!" Dagger asked, though she didn't sound to happy to point out this probability.

"What kind of weapon are we looking for?" Sabin asked calmly with the focus of a warrior.

"How much time do we have before whatever's threatening the Multiverse…Finishes it off?" Locke added with grim determination.

The four boys from Fantasy Falls looked at the four questioners and, with a quick glance at each other, began to answer. Kira spoke first; looking at Eiko, he replied: "While we're looking for this wielder and his weapon, we'll keep an eye out for the King." He said. Eiko seemed satisfied, and even a bit happy about the chance at seeing the King of Fantasy Falls.

"Master Egam _might_ have been wrong, but we all know how rare that is. Even if he was wrong, we'd probably be no farther from figuring out where King Grifeth did go- actually, if this is where people whose worlds have been destroyed go in this Multiverse, we'll at least get some info on the weapon, I hope." Heero nodded and answered Dagger's question. Dagger smiled in acknowledgement.

"My guess is, the weapon will be a sword- That's the King's weapon, and supposedly another King he met had a similar weapon, and if this wielder is anywhere near on par with the King, he'll have a weapon just the same." Zidane explained, nodding to Sabin. Sabin frowned slightly, not seeming satisfied, but Shadow had already begun to speak with a look at Locke.

"Whatever's threatening the Multiverse, might kill it today, or it may take weeks, months, or even _years_ before we're space chow. I wish I knew a more precise date." Shadow said. Locke was obviously the least satisfied with his explanation. However, this cleared up most of the questions, apparently, as Eiko then hopped up.

"I've got to start the shop up again. It might not be the best hours for business, but hey, I can't skimp out! Especially," Eiko began, turning to throw a glare at Dagger, "with bumbling bimbos around!" the girl finished. Dagger put her hands up in defense, but ended up following the pint sized salesgirl anyway. Sabin sighed.

"This could be complicated, but I'm going to see if I can find anything. You comin', Locke?" Sabin asked, turning back to look at Locke. Locke looked up at the ceiling, then nodded. Shadow and Zidane stepped forward as well.

"Well come too. Kira, Heero, you guys should help the girls." Zidane said. Shadow nodded. Kira and Heero shrugged, then went out the entrance that lead to the store. The other four began to walk towards the exit that lead directly to the back alley behind the shop, when Sabin stopped in front of his three companions and twisted around to ask a question.

"By the way…What kind of weapon does the King have, anyway?" he asked. Zidane looked up in remembrance.

"I can't really remember, since I only saw it once…But I think it was called…Keytana…" Zidane said. Shadow nodded in approval, which satisfied the group in knowing what they should look for. Without another moment's thought, the group padded forward on the streets of Commerce City in search of the Keytana and its wielder. Not knowing he may be closer than they thought.

* * *

"Damn." A single statement was what the silver haired boy offered as he looked past Ryouji and at the rising shadows. The familiar yellow eyes were the first thing that Ryouji realized belonged to the beasts he'd decimated back in his own (and sorely missed) Starlight City. 

"Tell me about it, these things are insane _and_ relentless!" Ryouji replied.

"Shut up." The boy said, standing up with a sigh. Ryouji frowned, but kept silent as he backed away from too near the Shadows.

The beasts started to appear in a circle formation, so you couldn't get too far away from any one without getting too near another one. Ryouji also noticed that the yellow eyed beasts were not the only tipe- along with them came lightly armored, blue clothed (where there wasn't armor, of course) and rather rigidly moving Heartless. The 'Heartless' symbol emblazoned boldly on their fronts. Ryouji and the boy were in the midst of exactly 18 Heartless- 10 of the pure black shadowy creatures, and 8 of the new soldier types.

"I really hate doing this." The boy sighed, putting a hand over his heart. Ryouji was about to agree, as he balled his fist…around the Keytana. As he was realizing he had the familiar Heartless killing weapon back in his hand when a glow interrupted his musings on how it had happened. He looked to his left and saw that the boy's hand had started to glow, and he began to look pained as his hand sunk into his very being.

"Whoa! What're you…" Ryouji trailed off, his eyes went wide, and he watched in awe as the boy screamed in pain for a brief instant, then yanked his hand back from his previously intangible body, and in it was what looked like a giant house-key with a black hilt guard and a chain hanging off of it that had a blue crystal at its end. "Cool." Ryouji felt a tad bit jealous after seeing the weapon that the boy held, but nowhere near as jealous as he felt only a second later. For, with a yell of rage and a black glow enveloping the mysterious boy, the boy leapt forward into the Heartless.

The first one he dispatched with a single slash- decapitating the little shadow before it could move. His cloak flapped every which way as he twisted around and stabbed a Soldier between its head helmet and made it dissolve into black wisps. He then did a full turn and slashed two that had leapt at him from behind in half. However, in the process of this, one of the soldiers had taken a stance and cart wheeled forward at him. Ryouji could only stare as the boy was hit, and uttered a cry before falling forward, the black glow fading from around him.

"Damn! Not yet!" the boy yelled, flipping up and reinstating the black glow. Two soldiers began to hop around in their awkwardly rigid way, and then leapt at the red eyed Keywielder, who blocked one of them, then sidestepped the second at the last minute. He twisted around, brought his Keyblade down on the first, and slashed to the right of the one he'd just killed to slay the first one that had landed behind him.

"Look out!" Ryouji suddenly exclaimed. The boy twisted in his direction, only to meet the claws of a yellow eyed shadow. Ryouji backed away a bit himself from seeing the boy's face slashed in such a brutal way, but stopped at the wall as the boy stumbled back up and sliced his seventh Heartless of eighteen and then, apparently burnt out, fell to the ground. The black glow dispersed so completely this time Ryouji thought he'd never be able to summon it again.

'Damn, I guess…I actually lose, this time…."' The boy thought to himself as the Heartless circled in around him alone. A Shadow leapt forward, and the boy closed his eyes; anticipating the pain- if there should be any- of his death….SLASH! The boy, after a few moments, opened his eyes in wonder of why he wasn't dead. His eyes became as big as saucers when he saw Ryouji slashing away at the Heartless. He had already made the score nine Heartless dead, to nine Heartless alive, and he was still slashing.

"Sorry it took me so long," Ryouji said, breathing a bit labored as he ducked under a Shadow Heartless and cut it in half, he then took off his backpack and slammed it against a Shadow, crushing it in a familiar way. Now there were 3 Soldiers and 4 Shadows. "but I figured I'd see what you could do before stepping in to save you!" Ryouji smirked, turning back to look at the boy after cutting two more Shadows in half.

"Yeah, you are kind of idiotic like that, judging by the look of you." The boy smirked a bit cruelly, standing up and readying the Keyblade he held. Ryouji rolled his eyes, ducked beneath a Shadow, but was hit from behind by a Soldier. "and you're really not that good at-_this_." Ryouji rolled away from the battle for a second, then upon turning back he heard 'this' and saw the Keyblade wielding boy slashing a Soldier in half.

"Maybe, maybe not…Doesn't really matter, though… I got more!" Ryouji slashed the last Shadow in half as he dove to his backpack. The other boy seemed to have slowed reactions and didn't see Ryouji in all of his movements-or perhaps he didn't care about it anymore, as Ryouji picked up the backpack and tossed it at the second to last Soldier. Another soldier had tossed itself at him in a midair cart wheel, but Ryouji twisted around and slashed it in half before even its legs touched him. He then turned back to the other Shadow, and saw that it was holding his backpack without seeming harmed by the projectile at all. Ryouji didn't bat an eye lash, but instead pulled back the Keytana, and let it loose like a Boomerang was being thrown. The Soldier's eyes went wide, and it met its death upon contact with the blade, leaving the beat up, Heartless crushing backpack on the ground.

Silence surrounded the boys for a few moments after, then: "….We both got nine…idiot…." The boy replied. Ryouji face fell.

"You know, that's getting really old!" the black haired boy pouted. The other boy shrugged, flipping his silver hair, then he closed his eyes and winced a bit as the black hilted key blade dispersed into his heart again. "What is that thing, anyway?" Ryouji asked aloud. He didn't expect an answer, but the boy shrugged and replied.

"It's called a Keyblade…The 'Conqueror Key' in its First Fantasy." The boy said nonchalantly. He then motioned to the Keytana. "What the heck is that rip off supposed to be?" he asked. Ryouji raised an eyebrow, but shrugged off the rude comment.

"I think it's called…the Keytana. But I wouldn't bet money on it. It just kind of…fell into my hand after my world…" Ryouji trailed off, then he jumped up in realization. "You've been to other worlds, haven't you?!"

"Only one other… One you probably haven't heard of. Why? You need to get somewhere?" the boy asked. Ryouji shrugged.

"Not really. I mean… I want to find my friend, but…" Ryouji looked away and the boy didn't seem to want to force him to continue, so he instead began on a new thought. "Do you know what those things were?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, they're called Heartless. They're beings that have no hearts. At least no hearts aside from the ones they lost to Darkness." He said. Then, with an uncharacteristic sad look, he added: "I…should be one of them." Ryouji tilted his head in question, but didn't ask, and the boy didn't tell. For a few minutes, there was silence, then, Ryouji looked at the boy, who had closed his eyes for whatever reason.

"Oh yeah, I never asked… What's your name?" Ryouji asked. "Mine's Ryouji Shinjuru," Ryouji said, extending a hand for a shake with a smile plastered on his face.

The boy opened his eyes, then looked at the hand, almost quizzically, before standing up and walking past Ryouji without taking it. "My name…Shirotaka…But I wouldn't bother remembering it." The silver haired boy, Shirotaka, replied. Shirotaka walked past Ryouji and into the now almost lightless streets of Commerce City.

* * *

A/N: Nothing really to say except REVIEW! I mean seriously, I finally get another story going and not even ten reviews! Well, until the next update! 


	6. To the Stars

_Chapter 5: Into the Stars_

The darkness had finally engulfed the streets of Commerce City. Now Ryouji and Shirotaka, who had a kind of mutual understanding- neither wanted to walk around the city in pure darkness- were heading towards the only place Ryouji knew- the Accessory Shop on Crystania street.

"Seems kind of crazy to expect that they'd remember you, much less care about you, you know." Shirotaka pointed out. Ryouji frowned. He really couldn't stand the cynical attitude of Shirotaka, but he figured it wouldn't do any good to complain about him all day.

"Look, it's not like we'll be asking for a place to stay forever- they should be able to put us up for the night after hearing our story especially." Ryouji replied. Shirotaka shrugged at this, and kept walking after the black haired boy.

The two finally made it a good ways into the city and were turning around on the cobbled Crystania street. The first thing Ryouji noticed was that the shop light was the only one in the area. He raised an eyebrow at this, but kept going forward regardless. Shirotaka sighed and Ryouji heard him grunt in a familiar way.

"You're pulling out that Conquest Key?!"

"_Conqueror_ Key, and yes! You do realize that Heartless could pop up at any time. This could very well be a trap if they've been targeting you as much as they've been on my back." Shirotaka explained. Ryouji blinked, then nodded in understanding.

'_Guess I should get ready too!"' _he thought. He clenched his fist around… nothing but air. "Ah crap! I forgot how to do it!!!!" Shirotaka looked back after this exclamation and snickered, walking forward to the accessory shop alone. Ryouji didn't seem to notice immediately, instead he called out to the air: "I summon thee, oh mighty

Keytana!" to no avail. "Duh-dun-dun-dun KEYTANA!…", "GO KEYTANA GO!!!", "Keytana a Go-Go?!" Each phrase was met with the same result of no shiny mystical weapon appearing in his hand.

* * *

Shirotaka sighed as he looked at the accessory shop door. It was locked. He figured that'd be the case, which means he'd have to break and enter. "Oh well, this thing makes it easy…" he sighed, pointing his black hilted Keyblade at the door. A glow emanated from its tip, and struck the lock on the door. He kicked it open and stepped into the dusty shop to see… A very big knuckle. 

"WHOA!" Shirotaka ducked and followed it with a roll. He barely made it. He heard the door shut behind him and turned around to see a rather jockish man with blond hair in a wild style similar to a crew cut. The man had fighting gloves on for sure, and he was looking quite deadly as he cracked his knuckles.

"What are you doing here?! How did you break that lock?!" The man asked suspiciously. Shirotaka leapt to his feet (as he was on his knee from the roll) and readied his Keyblade. He held a fighting stance that consisted of a Keyblade pointed outward with a straight arm and his back and legs were straight as well.

"I used magic, basically." Shirotaka said after a few moments silence.

"It was sealed with magic," Sabin, the blond man replied.

"My magic's better." A snort was the reply to this. Shirotaka frowned as Sabin's eyes narrowed. He slowly put his fists down and looked at the Keyblade in the silver haired boy's hands.

"Is that….Keytana?!" Sabin wondered aloud. Shirotaka blinked.

'_Why does this guy know about the Keytana…. That idiot must have told him."' _Shirotaka thought. He looked over towards the door, wondering when 'that idiot', Ryouji, would pop in. _'What am I thinking?! I don't need that loser! I'll be fine on my ow-"' _Shirotaka's musings were interrupted by a shriek and a loud crash from a room in the vicinity. Sabin's eyes went wide and he dashed away from the door and past Shirotaka with incredible speed.

"Eiko! Dagger!" he exclaimed. Shirotaka twisted around and watched as he left. He bit his lip, then shrugged and dashed after the man.

"Wait you, how do you know about the Keytana?!" he asked as Sabin broke through the back door of the shop and out into a dark alleyway. Shirotaka finally met the door and dashed through it after looking both ways- Sabin could've only gone to the left, as the right held a dead end. He dashed down and saw a flicker of movement on the out turn of the alley. A big blur of movement followed. Shirotaka's eyes went wide.

What appeared to be a gigantic spider was moving through the air, it's legs dripping a black sinewy material that looked like a poor imitation of a spider's web. The reason its legs dripped this was most likely because it was dissolving slowly as it held two women: Eiko and Dagger, wrapped onto the spider's forelegs. Sabin was leaping up onto a short building after the creature, which took its own leap- far longer than Sabin's- onto a hotel a street away. Shirotaka groaned and dashed back into the alleyway, he grabbed a fire escape's ladder and pulled it down, crawling up it at a heightened pace as he did so, and upon reaching the top of the fire escape way, kept climbing stairs until he was on top of the two story accessory shop. He looked over the buildings- which now had a few lights among them (people were apparently waking up in the hotel, among other places).

The Spider was now clearly visible. It had a black and red Heartless mark over it, and a purple armor covering everything but the legs he'd seen earlier and the underbelly. Its glowing yellow eyes set it apart from any normal creature and affirmed it was a Heartless. Sabin was desperately pushing himself as he leapt over rooftop after rooftop to little avail- the spider's mailbox sized legs were larger and more powerful, and its truck sized body didn't seem to weigh anything under their strength.

'_Dang, I need to talk to that guy. He may be able to help… But how can I get his attention when he's worried about those chicks? Oh well, guess I'll just take down that Spider. But how can I reach it?" _Shirotaka's thoughts were a flurry of apprehension and frustration as he came to these conclusions. He looked around almost aimlessly, then his eyes caught sight of something. Something he never thought he'd see again…

"A MS?!" He said aloud. The Aries Mobile Suit that had been used to get the Castle Fantasy dwellers there had been spotted. Shirotaka was only able to gape for a moment, then, realizing what this meant, he smirked. "Guess I found my ticket to information! I'm taking you down, spidey!" he said, talking to the air again. He dashed backwards across the roof- the MS was about seven rooftops away. He could clear the rooftops and then hack the suits input, pilot it across the city to the Spider and then just squash it like a bug. Well, the last part wouldn't be possible with the women stuck to its leg, but either way he would be getting somewhere. So he dashed to the edge of the roof and leapt. And he dashed and leapt again. And again. And again. He reached the final roof's edge and leapt from it onto the shoulder of the mobile suit. His Conqueror Key was still in his hand throughout all of this. He aimed it at the Mobile Suit's midsection, and smirked as a click was heard. The cockpit door opened and he flipped down off the shoulder of the sitting mobile suit and into the comfy control center- it had five fairly spaced out seats and a lot of glowing dials and buttons, along with a steering wheel and a holographic map displayed on the backside of the cockpit door. He looked at the map as it closed- it emanated an eerie blue glow to be visible in the dark of the cockpit. _'Well, at least I've got light. Now time to get to work!"' _Shirotaka's Keyblade disappeared, and his hands became a blur of movement as he initiated the Mobile Suit's action.

* * *

As Shirotaka was gearing the Mobile Suit up, Ryouji was racing through the streets of Commerce City. It was a huge shock to see a gigantic spider's belly as it went flying over the rooftops, especially as he could've sworn he saw two very familiar women attached to its forelegs, but it was even more shocking to see the blond man he _definitely_ recognized jumping after the creature.

'_It's gotta be a Heartless!"'_ the conclusion was sound, he figured, as the thing was too black a color to be natural, and then it was way larger than even a tarantula. He had been running after the creature for quite a while when he saw a distant figure moving about in a manner of thought. It was pacing back and forth and for a second he wondered if he was in a Sherlock Holmes movie.

"I know it doesn't make sense, but I just got a _feeling_ Shadow!" Zidane was saying. Ryouji was racing towards none other than Zidane and Shadow of Fantasy Falls. Zidane was talking to Shadow, not even slightly away of Ryouji's imminent arrival, and Shadow was just now starting to realize what the approaching thing was, though he felt its presence for quite some time. Zidane stopped his musing and pacing in unison, and looked over at Shadow. Shadow was now facing the alley way and, though his mask covered expression, Zidane figured he was smiling. Zidane would've smiled. Ryouji was now out of steam for running for so long, and only half running with his wrists moving rather limply from side to side. He slowed more and more as he reached them, and gasped even more as well.

"T-t-thank G-god I f-f-found you g-guys!" Taking deep breaths, Ryouji collapsed in front of the Fantasy Fall workers and grasped Zidane's leg rather pitifully. Shadow snickered.

"I go-got to t-tell someone… Giant… Spider!" Ryouji finished, his head dipping onto the ground and breathing harder and harder with every passing second.

"Hey, you're the kid that lost his world!" Zidane suddenly said. Shadow blinked down at Ryouji now, not so amused any more. "Wait, a giant spider?!" Zidane asked after realization hit him. He figured maybe the kid had seen only very small spiders on his own world, and maybe never encountered the kind he'd fought before. Then again, if that was the case…

"It's…Heartless!" Ryouji finished. His gasps were slower and farther in between now, and he stood up and thumped his chest a few times to get the air passing better. "Okay…I think I'm better n-" Zidane, Shadow, and Ryouji all stopped and looked up at that moment. For a roaring sound had emerged from the quiet night; a roaring like an engine, and, as though it was a plane, the Aries MS blitzed over the rooftops of buildings, almost grazing more than a few. Zidane's eyes were almost popping out of his blond head, and Shadow had taken an uncharacteristic look of shock as Ryouji looked on in awe.

"CRAP!" Shadow and Zidane dashed off after their simultaneous exclamation. Ryouji turned and watched them leave, then looked back up at the MS. Unsure of what to do, he groaned and dashed after Zidane and Shadow.

* * *

The Spider was hopping over its fourteenth rooftop when it hit it. The fist of Locke, that is. The beast stopped its odd crawling over the rooftop and grunted, then looked over at Locke. "Guess I shouldn't've split from the guys to steal that purse… You look pretty tough." Locke remarked to the Heartless.

"Yeah, you _should_ have told us what you were doing so I could pummel you instead of having to look like a sissy when I turned back." A voice reached Locke's ears from further across the rooftops. Sabin was only two rooftops away, thanks to the momentary pause in the Spider's movements. The Spider looked back at Sabin, approaching faster than ever now that he was so close, and then at Locke. Its yellow eyes were wider than ever and its black fangs clicked in anxiety of knowing it was trapped.

"Locke!" Eiko and Dagger yelled. They had stopped their screaming only because of how dizzying it was to be beneath a Spider that leapt so fast and carelessly. Now they were tearing up at the sight of Locke, "you're here, thank goodness! Sabin too!" Dagger said. Locke winked.

"Yeah, unlike savage Sabin over there, I'm quick on my feet when it comes to helping a lady," Locke said as Sabin cleared the last roof between them and landed on the roof of the Spider and Locke.

"Didn't you just get through admitting you stole a woman's purse?" Sabin retorted. Locke blanched and almost lost his footing- he was still at the edge of the building as that's where the spider was headed, and the Spider seized its opportunity. It knocked Locke off the roof, and Sabin, who had leapt over with such confidence that he'd crossed his arms and smirked along with Locke, uncrossed them and looked at the scene in horror. Eiko and Dagger shrieked, and Locke yelled with them as he plummeted below. The Spider bent its legs, and Sabin overcame his shock to run towards it, but it was too late: The spider jumped. Sabin's hand scratched at its leg, but he didn't get a grip, then he backed up and looked at where the Spider was headed with its leap. "Damn!" he yelled.

The Clocktower of Commerce City was shining as bright as ever, and it was a measly (to the spider, at least) 20 ft away. The leap the Heartless had just performed could've carried it several meters up on the high tower. If not for one thing… A gigantic mobile suit speeding in front of it. There was a loud crash again, and the Spider seemed to groan as it hit the leg of the even larger MS. It was truly a sight to behold- the MS blowing out flames from its thrusters, its metallic body stationary in midair due to the pivot of its wings. The weaponry of the suit was left behind, but it was still a threatening body. One that was now getting yells.

"HEY!!! Who told you guys to fly over the city?!" Zidane shouted. Shadow and Zidane were much faster than Sabin, just the same as Locke, and so they had covered a great deal of the city and caught up with the spider. Shadow was even able to dash over and grab Locke right before he fell. Locke grumbled about not needing help as Zidane was yelling to the MS- who he had wrongly assumed the pilots of. The Spider was slowly sliding down the MS like a bug, then it seemed to realize it would drop onto the dangerous fighters below if it didn't act soon, and its muscles tensed as it stabbed its arms onto the suit. It was sticking. Its adhesive nature was apparent as it began to crawl very oddly around the Mobile Suit's body, avoiding the thruster flames and taking a few leaps up its mass. It finally reached the head of the Mobile Suit, then leapt off. It touched down on the face of the Clock tower before Shirotaka managed to amble the Mobile Suit around and sweep at it effectively. He knocked the flying weapon's hand through the metallic clock, as the Spider released its adhesive grip and fell towards the Earth, trailing screams behind it from Dagger and Eiko.

Zidane's eyes went wide as shards of glass, metal, and a clock hand went sailing towards the Earth after the spider. The Spider simply leapt away immediately after landing, and everything hit the Earth at once. _'Kira and Heero would never be that careless… Unless… It's _not_ Kira and Heero!"'_ Zidane swore under his breath and then dashed towards the Spider and wreckage.

'_Dangit, how did I miss… WHOA!"' _Shirotaka's thoughts were rather insignificant after a moment, as the Mobile Suit was suddenly thrown from its floating state. The thrusters were out of fuel. "CRAP! No, not now, just a little longeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!" Shirotaka's last word was rather lengthy as the MS fell 200 meters or so and made a huge indentation in the ground. Zidane and Shadow had barely managed to avoid being crushed as the Suit began its descent directly after they ran towards the rubble. Shadow, however, had managed to pull Zidane aside in the same manner as Locke (who was now far behind the others, grasping the wound he'd received from the Spider knocking him off the roof).

Sabin landed next to them, having jumped from the shorter rooftop to the left of the Clock tower. He dashed over to Zidane and shook the boy who was now in shock. Zidane snapped out of it rather quickly. "W-what," he stopped talking immediately and stood up, scanning the area for the Spider. "Where is it?!" he queried. Sabin looked around too. The Spider was ambling around the streets now- wary of too many jumps now that it knew the threat of Mobile Suits. Shadow bent his knees and dashed forward, faster than anyone had moved so far. The Spider didn't seem to notice at first, then, Shadow was hit leg first with the black sticky fluid from the creature's bottom.

"Blast!" Shadow yelled, he'd reached for his shuriken, but his hands were bound to him moments later. _'I was careless; should've known it could do that!"'_ as he was cursing his idiocy, Sabin and Zidane were rushing forward, but the Spider was also moving towards its newly captured pray. They couldn't possibly make it in time… The Spider had arrived and was bending down for a bite to Shadow's exposed neck… A silver blur hit it instead of exposed flesh.

"Dumb animal, that pissed me off!" Shirotaka landed about 20 ft. in front of Sabin and Zidane, and reached a hand up to catch his returning Keyblade. The Spider shook itself, then stabbed its pincers into the ground, realizing what its new enemy had to fight with and readying itself appropriately. Shadow wormed around on the ground for a second, then managed to get in a good enough position to roll away at the same time as Shirotaka charged. The Spider jumped back and avoided its first slash, then smacked him with its pincer, which Shirotaka barely blocked.

"What are you doing, kid?!" Sabin's voice reached Shirotaka and the silver haired boy looked back at him.

"What do you mean?! You guys can't possibly fight a Heartless!"

"So says you… Wait, Zidane, is that the Keytana?!" Sabin had pointed at Shirotaka's weapon. Zidane looked over, and frowned.

"It looks similar but…"

"ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO HELP OR TALK?!" Shirotaka exclaimed after a while. The Spider growled and swatted Shirotaka into a wall before Sabin and Zidane could jump in. It then turned directly around and sprayed a huge wall of web between the clock tower and building Sabin had leapt from. Sabin and Zidane's eyes went wide as the Spider growled and bent down over Shirotaka, it's mouth stabbed into his shoulder before he could regain his bearings from crashing into the stone wall. "AUGH!" he moaned in pain. The Spider's eyes glowed darkly as it began to inject its poison… There was a slash, and the poison and the fangs were no longer there. The Spider screeched as its mouth dispersed into wispy shadows.

Ryouji smirked, looking at the beast from standing on its back. He'd managed to catch up to Zidane and the others by taking a shortcut (well, actually he'd gotten lost). He'd conveniently circled around the webbing to the other side of the clock tower. His smirk disappeared as the Spider was now twisting and turning, lurching and shaking to get him off. "Whoa, easy boy!" Ryouji said jokingly. Shirotaka rolled his eyes weakly, but he couldn't help but smile. Ryouji jumped off the Spider and landed by Shirotaka with his Keytana out. "Here comes the hurt!" he yelled. He slashed twice in a flash before the Spider could do much of anything, and the web holding Eiko and Dagger dispersed. He then flipped back and spun his Keytana before jumping forward and slashing at Heartless again. The Heartless leapt back in desperation, but didn't go far enough: the web had been cut up by Zidane, who now held two twin daggers. Zidane and Sabin were now standing in front of it, and Ryouji and a staggering- but a still able to fight- Shirotaka behind it. Not to mention two very angry women; Eiko and Dagger, now regaining the use of their legs and peeling web from themselves.

"Looks like its endgame for you," Ryouji said slyly, holding out his Keytana.

"What the idiot said." Shirotaka said, pointing over at his ally.

"Here comes the hurt, you big bad bug!" Eiko added, sticking out her tongue.

Sabin cracked his knuckles menacingly. "Don't do that so loudly," Zidane said after he did this. He was bending over Shadow and slicing him free at the same time as the others took up fighting positions.

"Glad to know you guys are safe!" Dagger yelled over. Shadow stood up and nodded after Zidane finished his cutting. Everyone readied themselves as the Spider began to look even more panicked. Ryouji's eyes narrowed, he bent his knees and charged at the creature. The Spider bent its legs and jumped, only to meet the fist of Sabin which knocked it back into the ground. It quickly counter with a spray of web at Sabin. Sabin hit the ground and the Spider used one foreleg to knock the blond fist fighter behind itself into Zidane- who was running to help. At the same time it brought up another foreleg and blocked Ryouji's slash. Ryouji leapt back and Zidane was, again, cutting webs as the Spider leapt up and stuck to the roof.

"FIRE!" Eiko yelled suddenly. Shirotaka turned to her and gasped. There, in her little hands, was a glowing hot red orb of none other than the Materia that Ryouji had seen earlier. As she yelled she raised the orb and it emitted a spray of flames at the Spider. The Spider seemed to shriek, and it fell from the wall into a slash from Ryouji. A back leg disappeared from the attack.

"So that's magic…" Shirotaka mumbled.

"Hey, Shirotaka, focus!" Ryouji yelled to the silver haired boy. Shirotaka snapped to attention and looked at the new scene- Ryouji was now battling harder with the creature, as the Spider sprayed viscous fluids from its behind again, ensnaring Eiko and Dagger again, though they were struggling. Shirotaka leapt to avoid a spray of liquid himself, and held up the Conqueror Key diagonally across his body.

"You need help with this thing?! Man, I feel sorry for you! Here comes the hurt, you ugly bug!" Shirotaka dashed forward, avoiding a spray of the webbing. He leapt over the spider's abdomen and slashed at its head. The Spider roared again, and shook itself violently at the same time. Both boys went flying, but before they'd impacted against the walls, they were surrounded by black and blue and standing safely on the ground.

"Whoa!" both boys said, managing to stand shakily.

"Are you kids alright?" Shadow and Zidane looked down at the boys. Zidane had asked the question and seemed to be the one who aided Ryouji, while Shadow removed his hand from Shirotaka indicating he was his savior.

"Yeah, but that thing's going on a rampage…" Shirotaka looked back at the Spider, only to see Sabin, free again, dashing forward with his fist held back. The Spider regained its balance and recovered from its pain a moment too late.

"RAGING FIST!!!" Sabin had charged with a shout. His fists became a blur as they moved rapidly against the Spider's body, pummeling the creature into oblivion. The shadowy body of the Spider finally dispersed into shadowy pieces, and the group sighed with relief. Sabin exhaled and dropped his battle stance to walk over and talk with the group.

"AWESOME!" Ryouji immediately yelled, pulling away from Zidane and running over to Sabin. "You've GOT to te-teach me…whoa!" Halfway over to Sabin, Ryouji began to wobble and look dizzy. _'Crap, pushed myself too hard… Oh well, guess…I'll never learn….That cool thing…."'_ Ryouji thought, his eyes closed as he began to fall- he heard vague voices yelling to him (at least he thought he would be the one called 'kid') but soon the darkness took him.

* * *

Ryouji awoke to an unfamiliar room. There were teddy bears and Moogle dolls adorning the shelves, and the white walls were covered in posters with rather childish things on them. There were a few books gathering dust on the green shelves, and beneath a nightstand lay a box marked "Materia". He immediately jumped up. A cover fell off of him. He blinked and looked down at the sheet.

"I guess it makes sense, but I still hate it." a slightly high pitched, yet masculine voice was heard. It was muffled and Ryouji knew it was coming from outside the room. He looked up at the door and saw the door knob turning. There wasn't time to do anything else before the person entered. Or persons.

"Oh, you're awake! Good!… Now tell us everything you know about the King!!!"

"AH!" Ryouji was immediately seized by a shorter boy with brown hair and cobalt blue eyes- it was Heero. He growled at the black haired boy he was holding by the collar, but two more people walked in and one soon dashed over and pulled Heero back.

"Don't be stupid, Heero! We heard about him from the others and this Shirotaka kid," Kira, the figure who was pulling Heero away from a very scared Ryouji, flicked his thumb back to the last figure in the room- Shirotaka.

"So the idiot's finally awoken. That's good…." Shirotaka looked as though he wanted to say something, but trailed off. Ryouji blinked, then looked apprehensively at the other two.

"T-the king?" he asked.

"King Grifeth… But we know you probably don't know him.. It's just… Well-"

"You have the Keytana." Ryouji and Kira, who was just cut off from his explanation, jumped. Shadow had entered as mysteriously as ever, and had his arms folded over his middle with one foot on the wall he was leaning on. His covered face was turned towards Ryouji. A few footsteps later, Zidane walked in. He was looking rather flustered, but, aside from that, okay. "Ah, Zidane. Perhaps you should explain." Shadow said. Zidane frowned as he entered through the doorway fully and looked over at Ryouji suddenly in surprise.

"Oh, you mean to Ryouji-" he said to Shadow, then immediately turned to Ryouji, "Sorry, didn't know you were awake!" He put a hand behind his head and laughed a little.

"Ah, it's okay… What are you supposed to explain?" Ryouji asked. Zidane blinked, then coughed a little.

"Well, er, as per request of Queen Gema White of Fantasy Falls… We would like for you to find our King, Grifeth." Zidane said plainly. Ryouji raised an eyebrow, still quite lost.

"Your world is obviously not the only one inhabitable." Kira took over for Zidane's rather bad explanation, and stepped forward. Ryouji looked over to him.

"Yeah, guess you're right…" Ryouji stopped talking suddenly. He remembered what was said about his world now, what he heard back in the accessory shop. Could it be true? Could his world actually have been destroyed? "But… was." the black haired boy gulped and looked down, squeezing the under sheet of the bed. Everyone else looked down, with the exception of Shirotaka, who, nonetheless, looked rather sympathetic.

A few moments passed in silence, then Ryouji looked up suddenly. "Heartless." he said. "What are they? That's what that Spider was… Right?" Ryouji couldn't be sure himself, but he noticed that the Spider, and all of the things that Shirotaka had identified before held the same mark on them somewhere.

"You're smart-" Shadow began.

"Not really-" Shirotaka mumbled. Shadow looked over at him and Shirotaka looked away and shrunk back into the doorway's crowd.

"The Heartless are… Creatures of darkness, that devour worlds. You've undoubtedly come across them before… When your world was destroyed." Shadow finished. Ryouji nodded. "They seek to bring everything into the same darkness as them. In truth, your world wasn't so much destroyed as buried in the darkest depths of… Darkness." Shadow said. Ryouji blinked.

"So… My world could still be saved?!" he exclaimed, a bit over eager.

"Well… Not necessarily…" Shirotaka replied for Shadow. Ryouji slackened and leaned against the bedpost solemnly. He then looked back at the wooden bedpost and frowned.

"Where am I?" he asked suddenly.

"You're in _my_ room!" Eiko had stomped in. She was quite angry, as was evident by her manner of stomping, and pouted as she looked over at Ryouji in her bed. Ryouji sweated a little at her angry pout- he remembered most of last night, and her fire ability was high up in his mind. Then he was struck by an idea.

"Hey, how did you do that fire thing?" he asked Eiko. Eiko raised an eyebrow, but it was Heero who answered.

"It wasn't a fire 'thingy' it was magic. Made capable by focusing on and drawing out the power of Materia- those orbs over there." Heero said in a very official matter. Ryouji nodded, though he couldn't help but be disbelieving of the orbs being 'magic'.

'_More than likely this backwards place just doesn't know the science behind it… Oh well, neither do I!_"' the boy mused silently. He then came up with another question. "Who's this King- Grifeth, I suppose?" he queried- the last bit seemed to be confirmation on his name.

"He's… Well, he's our King. We need you to help find him because…" Kira trailed off on his reply. Zidane stepped forward authoritatively.

"You have the Keytana, and it's the same weapon that King Grifeth uses."

Again, dead silence followed. Ryouji looked at his hand. He focused for a moment- remember the Heartless symbol and feeling as though there was a real Heartless in the room right there. This, he had discovered, was the trick to making the weapon appear. It did so and everyone gaped a little. "You mean this?"

"Yes."

"How does it matter what kind of weapon we use? You and another person may use a sword that look alike but that doesn't mean anything." Ryouji said.

"But the difference is, a Keytana is a mystical weapon. Its power is quite great, I'd suspect. And King Grifeth went searching for it and its wielder because…" Zidane trailed off in his reply. Ryouji raised his eyebrow yet again, but didn't have to hold the stance for too long- Shirotaka stepped forward.

"It's the second blade made with the power to seal Keyholes- the thing that protects the Heart of Worlds. My Keyblade is the first." This was what Ryouji would remember in the future. Somehow, the black haired boy just knew it. He looked at his blade and blinked in awe.

"I can _seal_ the Heart of worlds?!" he asked.

"Yeah, which basically means keep other things from interfering with them- it'll prevent the Heartless from bringing other worlds to Darkness." Shirotaka said.

"If King Grifeth knows of its power- which it's a sure bet he does- then he's looking for help to do just that," Zidane spoke up again. "So our proposal is simple… Go with Kira and Heero- they have a ship that can take you to other worlds where you can then seal the Keyholes and look for King Grifeth at the same time. Shirotaka has already agreed-" he looked over at Shirotaka, who was now glaring at him, and cleared his throat nervously. "Er, of course you'll be offered the same terms- a request of the King's, that should be within his power." Zidane finished. Ryouji blinked, his Keytana disappeared and he laid back down in bed. Eiko twitched.

"When are you guys planning on leaving?" he looked over Heero's shoulder at Shirotaka, and Shirotaka looked at his watch.

"Two hours. Nightfall. If you're coming, make your decision by then." Shirotaka said. Zidane looked startled, as though he'd missed something, but everyone else began to pile out of the room.

"W-wait, does that mean you'll think about it?!" the confused monkey tailed boy queried. Ryouji looked over, and nodded with a smile on his face. Zidane stood up straight and turned to leave Ryouji with his thoughts. Before he left, however, he said one last thing: "Ryouji," he began, his back turned towards the door and a hand on the door frame- his voice was delicate and sympathetic. Ryouji inclined his head a little from his laying position with his hands behind his head and looked at his back. "if anyone can bring your world back from the Darkness, it's the King, and, even if he can't…" Zidane trailed off, then walked out silently. Ryouji closed his eyes for a moment.

' "_Do you really want what happened to you to happen to someone else?" ' _ he thought to himself in Zidane's voice. He reopened his eyes with a smile on his face. "Of course, this'll be the perfect opportunity for…" Ryouji leaned over his bed and looked on the floor where he had spotted his back pack earlier. He smirked, grabbed the bag, and began to unzip it…

* * *

"He's not coming, let's _go_ already." Shirotaka yelled to Kira and Heero. Zidane made sure to leave a note with the address of the MS on it, regardless of whether Ryouji decided to go with it or not. It had already been 2 and a half hours and the group was still waiting to see Ryouji's black hair and goofy smile appear out of their peripheral vision.

"Maybe, but… Let's just give it a few more minutes, okay?" Kira said.

"Yeah," Heero agreed. Both didn't want to be stuck alone with Shirotaka on a trip across the cosmos, even though they would still end up going even if the Keytana wielder wasn't with them; the King would most definitely want any and all Keyholes sealed regardless of which key it was done with.

"HEY!!!" All three of them looked up, just as Shirotaka was about to resume bickering, and saw Ryouji dashing towards them- no longer in his school boy uniform, but instead wearing an interesting battle costume. He was wearing an open green jacket that had short sleeves and that had "Strength" and "Belief" written in Kanji on the right and left sleeves respectively; shorts that were a dark black; a chain necklace with a thunderbolt at its end was around his neck. As he ran they could see his black sneakers which also had blue thunder running over their sides. "I'M HERE!" Ryouji said, running up to the MS, which was in a sitting position by the Clock Tower.

"About time." Shirotaka said in aggravation. The Mobile suits eyes glowed, and the machine sprung to life as Ryouji hopped in. Everyone else was already sitting and buckled up.

"Nice! I got to get one of these!" Ryouji joked.

"Glad to have you aboard!"

"This is just a lame Aries Mobile Suit, but, with any luck, we'll find my superior Gundam on the way!" Kira said.

"Yeah right, like your Gundam could _ever_ be called "superior"- it's _mine_ that was superior!" Heero retorted. Both of them were in the two front seats, and Ryouji just caught a glimpse of a triggered stick in Kira's hands before the cockpit closed and the only light was the glowing map interface.

"Well, let's get this party started!" Heero said, lifting the piloting wheel up and making the MS respond accordingly. Shirotaka rolled his eyes, then looked over at Ryouji with a smirk.

"Don't get yourself killed… Loser… And don't get in my way either!" the silver haired boy said. Ryouji only smirked back.

The people of Commerce City blinked in shock and awe at the Mobile Suit lifting up from the decimated Clock tower. Its thrusters went into full force, and its great body was suddenly hovering for a few minutes until, with a huge jolt, the machine blasted off high into the sky and away from the city. Zidane, Shadow, Eiko, Sabin, and Dagger were gathered on the Accessory Shop's roof to watch. All of them looked up at the MS with emotional eyes. The way to King Grifeth may have just been found. Now, they were on their way to the stars.

Zidane looked up at the scene with his arm around Dagger's waist. As he felt her head touch his shoulder he only had one thought: '_Hang in there, Queen Gema, I know they'll bring the King back to us!"_'

_To be Continued_

**Next time: **Ryouji and Shirotaka have begun their quest to save the Worlds and find King Grifeth! They come to the mysterious Land of Water and meet up with a group of rookie Shinobi about to have quite a battle. The Keyhole seems to be nearby, but danger abounds from the group's enemies; Haku and Zabuza. Will Ryouji and Shirotaka be able to keep their lives long enough to seal the Keyhole? Find out next time!

A/N: Whew, well, obviously I've been gone for a while, but I finally managed to finish the hardest part- introduction. So, hopefully, I'll be able to get to this story more regularly! For all those faithful people that are reading, please leave a review. I'd like to know how I'm doing and, to be honest, I'd like to know peoples thoughts on this. Trust me, you'll see faster updates with reviews- they're REALLY good motivators. Not like I won't update otherwise, but, well, you know. Thanks for reading anyway, and see you guys soon (I hope…)


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